Dr. Sarah Axeen serves on the IAS Steering Committee & is a Co-Leader for the IAS Addiction Policy & Health Economics alongside IAS Member, Dr. Rosalie Pacula. This group of faculty members focuses on research, publications, and advocacy to support evidence-based policy development.

Dr. Axeen is the Director of Data and Analytics at the USC Schaeffer Center and an Assistant Professor of research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Her research focuses on the drivers of and solutions to opioid use and abuse in the United States, the impact of state-level policies on mental and behavioral healthcare outcomes, geographic variations in healthcare, and the relationship between changes in commercial prices and spending and utilization in Medicare. Dr. Axeen earned a BA in public policy analysis and politics, cum laude, from Pomona College, and a PhD in health policy and economics from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, where her dissertation, “Essays in Opioid Use and Abuse,” won the USC Price Henry Reining Jr. Award. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the USC Schaeffer Center and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.

• Interrupted Time Series Analysis: Patient Characteristics and Rates of Opioid-Use-Disorder-Related Emergency Department Visits in the Los Angeles County Public Hospital System during COVID-19 Healthcare (Basel). 2023 Mar 29; 11(7). . View in PubMed
• Characteristics and Outcomes of 360 Consecutive COVID-19 Patients Discharged From the Emergency Department With Supplemental Oxygen Ann Emerg Med. 2023 01; 81(1):14-19. . View in PubMed
• Differences in Comorbidities Between Children and Youth With Suicide Attempts Versus Ideation Presenting to the Emergency Department Arch Suicide Res. 2022 Jan-Mar; 26(1):280-289. . View in PubMed
• West J Emerg Med. 2021 Feb 08; 22(2):234-243. . View in PubMed
• Behavioral Health Risk Factors for Nonmedical Prescription Opioid Use in Adolescence Pediatrics. 2021 09; 148(3). . View in PubMed
• Association Between Race/Ethnicity and Disparities in Health Care Use Before First-Episode Psychosis Among Privately Insured Young Patients JAMA Psychiatry. 2021 03 01; 78(3):311-319. . View in PubMed
• National trends in mental health-related emergency department visits by children and adults, 2009-2015 Am J Emerg Med. 2020 12; 38(12):2536-2544. . View in PubMed
• The Association Between Hospital Characteristics and Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act Citation Events Med Care. 2020 09; 58(9):793-799. . View in PubMed
• Rubber Meeting the Road: Access to Comprehensive Stroke Care in the Face of Traffic Acad Emerg Med. 2020 06; 27(6):457-460. . View in PubMed
• Association between maternal serious mental illness and adverse birth outcomes J Perinatol. 2019 05; 39(5):737-745. . View in PubMed
• Measuring The Lifetime Costs Of Serious Mental Illness And The Mitigating Effects Of Educational Attainment Health Aff (Millwood). 2019 04; 38(4):652-659. . View in PubMed
• Trends in Opioid Use and Prescribing in Medicare, 2006-2012 Health Serv Res. 2018 10; 53(5):3309-3328. . View in PubMed
• Emergency Department Contribution to the Prescription Opioid EpidemicAnn Emerg Med. 2018 06; 71(6):659-667. e3. . View in PubMed
• The Relationship between Commercial Health Care Prices and Medicare Spending and Utilization Health Serv Res. 2015 Jun; 50(3):883-96. . View in PubMed
• How much savings can we wring from Medicare? N Engl J Med. 2011 Oct 06; 365(14):e29.. View in PubMed