Assistant Professor of Health Outcomes
Anton Avanceña (he, him) is a decision scientist and health policy researcher who aims to improve value and equity in health globally. Anton’s main area of research involves understanding and addressing the health, economic, and social consequences of mental and behavioral conditions such as alcohol and other substance use disorders, depression, and PTSD. Anton is especially focused on evaluating the costs, benefits, cost-effectiveness, and equity impacts of novel and existing treatments, pharmacotherapies, and population-level interventions through real-world data analysis, simulation modeling, and economic evaluation. Anton also conducts research in other clinical areas such as pediatrics, oncology, and infectious diseases, among others.
Methodologically, Anton is interested in developing decision-analytic methods that advance a justice-oriented definition of value in health. He is a founding member and past chair (2023-2024) of the Health Equity Research Special Interest Group at ISPOR and has presented his work on equity-informative methods at the Society for Medical Decision Making, AcademyHealth, and the International Health Economics Association where he also serves on various committees.
At the University of Texas at Austin, Anton holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Internal Medicine and is affiliated with the Livestrong Cancer Institute at the Dell Medical School. Anton and is also a faculty affiliate of the Addiction Research Institute at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work and the Texas Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health Research.
Anton received his Ph.D. in health services organization and policy from the University of Michigan where he was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar. He received his undergraduate and graduate training in public health from the University of California, San Francisco and Santa Clara University.
Education
Ph.D., University of Michigan
MS, University of California, San Francisco
BS, Santa Clara University
Research Profile
NCBI: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=Avance%C3%B1a%20A%5Bauthor%5D
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=iKqmtkwAAAAJ&hl=en
Personal website: http://antonlv.com
Selected Recent Publications
*Denotes student(s)/trainee(s) at the time of the study.
CORE Research Area: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research
Okoye G*, Gopalakrishnan EC*, Park C, Avanceña ALV. Risk of hospital readmission and mortality among alcohol-related cancer survivors with alcohol use disorder. J Addict Med, online head of print.
Avanceña ALV, Heng JH*, Velasquez MM, Zigler CM, Frei CR, Pignone M. Alcohol use disorder treatment initiation among US adult cancer survivors with commercial insurance: a cohort study. Ann Intern Med. 2025; online ahead of print.
Avanceña ALV, Okoye G*, Yokananth R*, Norwood A, Schnarrs PW. Prevalence and correlates of alcohol use disorder diagnoses among users of HIV preexposure prophylaxis. JAMA Netw Open. 2025;8(4):e257295.
Okoye G*, Ben-Umeh K, Avanceña ALV, Onukwugha E. Healthcare resource utilization and costs after initiating direct-acting oral anticoagulants or low molecular weight heparins in patients with venous thromboembolism. Vasc Med. 2025; 30(2):197-204.
Avanceña ALV, Rose AM, Gardner MD, Rutter MM, Schafer-Kalkhof T, Suorsa-Johnson KI, van Leeuwen KD, Weilder E, Gebremariam A, Sandberg DE, Prosser LA. Preferences in clinical care of individuals with differences of sex development. Pediatr 2024;153(6):e2023064207.
CORE Research Area: Healthcare Systems Research
Patikorn C, Tan CH, Choo JY, Khuntha S, Ha NT, Noviyani R, Gloria MAJ, Avanceña ALV, Youngkong S, Shimamoto K, Chaiyakunapruk N. Role of health equity in health technology assessment processes and decision-making in Asia: a landscape analysis of 13 health systems in Asia. Value Health. 2025;28(4):582-590.
Cliff BQ, Avanceña ALV, Hirth R, Lee S-YD. The impact of Choosing Wisely interventions on unnecessary medical services: a systematic review. Milbank Quarterly 2021;99(4):1024-105. doi: 10.1111/1468-0009.12531
Avanceña ALV, Hutton DW. Optimization models for HIV/AIDS resource allocation: a systematic review. Value in Health. 2020;23(11):1509-1521. doi: 10.1016/j.jval.2020.08.001
Barton I, Avanceña ALV, Gounden N, Anupindi R. Unintended consequences and hidden obstacles in medicine access in Sub-Saharan Africa. Frontiers in Public Health. 2019;7:342. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2019.00342
Sekhri Feachem N, Afshar A, Pruett C, Avanceña ALV. Mapping healthcare systems: a policy relevant analytic tool. International Health. 2017;9:252-262. doi: 10.1093/inthealth/ihx005
CORE Research Area: Health Economics and Outcomes Research
Avanceña ALV, Vuong L*, Kahn JG, Marseille E. Psilocybin-assisted therapy for treatment-resistant depression in the US: a model-based cost-effectiveness analysis. Transl Psych. 2025;15(1):330.
Avanceña ALV, Heng JH*, Velasquez MM, Zigler CM, Frei CR, Pignone M. Trends in prevalence and correlates of alcohol use disorder diagnoses among US adult cancer survivors: serial cross-sectional analysis. J Natl Compr Canc Netw. 2025;23(5):156-163.
McCullough HP*, Moczygemba LR, Avanceña ALV, Baffoe JO*. Cost-benefit analysis of the interactive care coordination and navigation (iCAN) mHealth intervention for people experiencing homelessness. JMIR Form Res. 2025;9:e64973.
Griffiths MJS, Cookson R, Avanceña ALV, Espinoza MA, Jacobsen CM, Sussell J, Kowal S. Primer on health equity research in health economics and outcomes research: An ISPOR Special Interest Group Report. Value Health. 2025;28(1):16-24.
Graduate Courses
- PGS 381N Health Care Systems
- PGS 390J Data Analysis in Health Care (Topic: Data analysis in R)
- PGS 390U Advanced Research Methods in Health Care (Topic: Stated-preference methods)
- PGS 196S Health Outcomes Division Graduate Seminar (Topic: Health equity in HEOR)
Pharm.D. Courses
- PHM 384L Pharmacy and the US Health Care System (Topic: Health insurance)
Significant/Recent Activities
National and International Service Activities
- Member, Diversity, Anti-racism, and Transformation Team, Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM)
- Member, Career Development Committee, Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM)
- Member, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Promotion & Monitoring Group, International Health Economics Association (IHEA)
- Member, Organizing Committee, Annual Global Health Supply Chain Summit
Email address:
Phone:
Campus location:
US Mail Address:
2409 University Avenue, STOP A1930
Austin, TX 78712-1120
FEDEX Address:
2409 University Avenue, PHR 3.210B
Austin, TX 78712