Directory Profile

Dr. Pringle is an epidemiologist by training with extensive experience in health services research. Her particular areas of expertise are addiction services research, especially research involving the application of screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment (SBIRT) within various healthcare settings.

Recently, she served as Director of the $12 million federally-funded Pennsylvania SBIRT initiative’s Data Coordinating Center (DCC) and as its lead evaluator. Currently, Dr. Pringle is one of the 11 principal investigators funded by the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Association to develop and implement an SBIRT curriculum for medical residencies throughout Pennsylvania. Dr. Pringle also participates in the Allegheny County Overdose Prevention Consortium. She has been involved as a principal investigator or co-investigator for a number of federally-funded studies involving health services, patient safety, addiction treatment and addiction and chronic disease prevention research.

Dr. Pringle is currently leading the evaluation of a Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) funded initiative within Pennsylvania that has involved the application of SBI techniques with community pharmacists for the purpose of improving medication adherence. Dr. Pringle established the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Pharmacy Program Evaluation and Research Unit (PERU). PERU has secured over $120 million in research and program evaluation efforts for various entities within and outside of the University and is the repository for large databases associated with several federally-funded initiatives. Dr. Pringle has been involved in developing healthcare policy research and briefs that have been used to inform policy development at both the state and federal levels.