The New York State Department of Health’s Empire Clinical Research Investigator Program (ECRIP) has awarded a two-year, $574,166 grant to the Montefiore/Einstein Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research (CCER). The CCER will look for ways to help patients with or at risk for opioid use disorder (OUD) achieve better outcomes. Led by Julia Arnsten, M.D., M.P.H., chief of the division of general internal medicine at Montefiore and Einstein, the CCER was established in 2013 to improve patient-centered health outcomes in urban, diverse, and underserved populations. The five projects funded by the new grant will include studies to see how medical cannabis compares with opioids for controlling chronic pain in people living with HIV; examine using medical cannabis for reducing opioid use in patients with head and neck cancer; assess strategies for safer opioid prescribing for patients with sickle cell disease; and improve treatment access for people with opioid use disorder.