Coughlin, Mehdipanah receive IHPI honor for impact on health policy and practice

The University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation (IHPI) has named Lara Coughlin, Ph.D., and Roshanak Mehdipanah, Ph.D., M.S., as recipients of its 2026 Policy Impact Awards, recognizing their far-reaching contributions to addiction treatment and housing policy.

Presented at IHPI’s annual Member Forum on April 16, the awards honor sustained engagement with policy audiences and a demonstrated commitment to improving health policy and practice.

As part of the award, Coughlin and Mehdipanah will each receive $5,000 to support ongoing research, and their work will be featured in a future IHPI written or multimedia product.

About Coughlin: Expanding access to addiction treatment

Lara Coughlin, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry at the U-M Medical School, is a national leader in addiction policy and behavioral health implementation. Her work has advanced the use of contingency management (CM), an evidence-based treatment that provides incentives, such as gift cards or vouchers, to reinforce positive health behaviors like attending treatment or testing negative for substances, particularly for stimulant use disorders where few effective medication treatments exist.

Through research and sustained engagement with federal and state partners, Coughlin has helped transform CM from an underused intervention into a scalable, policy-supported strategy. A national study she led within the Veterans Health Administration found that patients who received CM for stimulant use disorder were 41% less likely to die in the following year compared to those who did not receive CM, providing real-world evidence of its life-saving potential. These findings helped inform a 2025 advisory from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which raised allowable CM incentive caps from $75 to $750—removing a major barrier to broader implementation nationwide.

At the state level, Coughlin has played a key role in shaping Medicaid policy. In Michigan, she serves as a subject matter expert for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Recovery Incentives Pilot, advising on program design, types of rewards for incentives, and equitable implementation. Her contributions help ensure CM programs are feasible, evidence-aligned, and accessible to Medicaid beneficiaries.

Her impact also extends to national clinical guidelines. As a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Smoking Cessation Guideline Panel, she led the inclusion of CM as a recommended treatment for cancer patients and survivors, marking the first time the approach has been incorporated into national oncology guidelines.

Across federal and state policy, clinical guidelines, and real-world implementation, Coughlin’s work has helped bring evidence-based addiction treatment into practice—expanding access, informing policy, and improving patient outcomes.

About Mehdipanah: Advancing housing policy to improve health equity

Roshanak Mehdipanah, Ph.D., M.S., associate professor of health behavior and health equity at the U-M School of Public Health and associate professor of urban and regional planning at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. She is an internationally recognized scholar in urban health equity. Her research examines how housing instability and policy decisions—such as disinvestment, tax foreclosure, and housing governance—shape health outcomes, particularly among marginalized communities.

Bridging public health, urban planning, and policy, she focuses on the structural drivers of health and translating research into actionable solutions. In 2021, she founded U-M Housing Solutions for Health Equity, an interdisciplinary initiative that produces policy-relevant evidence on housing as a key determinant of health across race, socioeconomic status, and aging.

At the state level, she led the Housing Solutions for Health Equity team to complete the 2024 Michigan Statewide Housing Needs Assessment in partnership with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, to guide decision-making by policymakers and community leaders on housing resources. By engaging state housing leaders throughout the process, Roshanak and her team ensured the findings were immediately actionable. The resulting report now serves as the foundational blueprint for the 2026 Michigan Housing Plan, directly shaping Michigan’s housing priorities, strategies, and investments.

At the national level, she has advised various groups on housing and health policy. In 2024, she was invited to present this work to the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in Washington, D.C. 

Her influence also extends internationally. In 2024, she contributed a chapter to a volume by the World Health Organization’s European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, offering evidence-based recommendations for creating healthier, more inclusive, and sustainable cities through stronger urban health governance.

Through collaboration with government agencies, housing authorities, and community partners, Mehdipanah has helped translate research into policies that tackle housing as a root cause of health inequities and improve conditions for vulnerable communities.