The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Integrated Substance Abuse Programs and the RAND Corporation co-hosted the annual Addiction Health Services Research (AHSR) Conference in Santa Monica, Calif., on October 25–26, 2005.

The annual conference is a forum for presenting updates on research and practice in the fields of drug/alcohol abuse and health services. It enables both junior and senior researchers specializing in addiction health services research to:

• Share current research findings.
• Interact in an informal setting.
• Speak with national representatives about the current status of priorities and funding initiatives for addiction health services research.
• Review current work and sharpen ideas for future research.

The 2005 conference—The Substance Abuse Services Ecology—focused on:

• The relevance of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) roadmap for health services research.
• Issues in continuity of care and system-level coordination of health services.
• Approaches to cost effectiveness analysis in health services.
• Models of effective research-community partnership.

Key Results:

• Approximately 155 participants attended the conference.
• The conference included:
  • Presentations now available on the conference website.
  • Breakout sessions with panel presentations of research findings.
  • Poster sessions with approximately 30 posters that covered a wide range of health services research.
  • A special session for junior investigators to meet with staff from the NIH and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and to explore potential funding opportunities.
• The project staff developed a special journal issue based on the conference themes and proceedings, published in the Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research in April 2009. Christine Grella, PhD, of the UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs served as guest editor along with M. Douglas Anglin, PhD.