Arnie Aldridge is a research economist in RTI’s Behavioral Health Financing, Economics and Evaluation Department with 15 years of experience in behavioral health economics. He has extensive experience conducting cost, cost-effectiveness, cost-benefit and financing studies regarding substance use interventions, jail diversion program and community-based recovery support initiatives, including employment services, vocational rehabilitation, and supportive housing. As the task lead for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) HEALing Communities Study Health Economics, Cost and Cost-effectiveness Task, Dr. Aldridge coordinates data collection, study designs and analysis across the four state outcomes and economics teams.
Dr. Aldridge currently acts as the Project Director for the tracking and evaluation of state policies related to Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder. In this role he leads the conducting of a legal and impact analysis of variation in state laws that influence access to medications to treat opioid use disorder.
Dr. Aldridge also serves as the principal investigator for a National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism funded study, entitled Improving Models of Alcohol Consumption Mismeasurement and Burden of Disease. This study has a goal of improving estimation accuracy of alcohol-attributable fractions in epidemiology and burden of illness studies.
