William N. Dowd serves as a research economist in RTI’s Behavioral Health Financing, Economics, and Evaluation program. His current projects include an NIAAA-funded program that evaluates the long-term cost-effectiveness of alcohol treatment, an NIH-funded HEALing communities initiative to address opioid use disorder in the United States, and a privately funded effort to collect and disseminate information on the quality of addiction treatment in six states.
Previously, Mr. Dowd led the economic evaluation of SAMHSA’s Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral Treatment program to examine the costs of initiating and sustaining these services in general healthcare settings. He also previously led several analytic tasks for SAMHSA’s Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, including analyses of the impact of reformulation of the opioid painkiller OxyContin and of policies related to SUD treatment for pregnant women.
Mr. Dowd is experienced in using large survey and administrative datasets, such as the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the Treatment Episode Data Set, and the National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services, to conduct analyses related to substance use and substance use disorder. He conducts statistical and econometric analysis and develops simulation models to evaluate outcomes and costs associated with interventions and policies related to substance use and other behavioral health issues.
