Roberto Abadie
Contact
I received my doctorate in anthropology from the Graduate Center, City University of New York in 2006. Before coming to UNL I held positions at the Mayo Clinic and McGill University. My research focuses on how different forms of social stratification, in particular, class, race, and ethnicity, contribute to produce and reproduce health inequalities in marginalized populations. I have conducted extensive research on the ethics of clinical trials and community based research, HIV risk, People Who Inject Drugs (PWID), and health disparities among Latino populations in a variety of settings in Latin America, the Caribbean and the US. I have received funding from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research and the National Institutes of Health. My book , The Professional Guinea Pig: Big Pharma and the Risky World of Human Subjects (2010, Duke University Press), – has been recognized with the Best Book of the Year Award by the Medical Sociology Section of the British Sociological Association. My research appeared in Time Mazagine, BBC, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The Miami Herald and the Philadelphia Inquirer among other venues.
Education
- Post-Doctoral Fellow Bioethics Research Program. Mayo Clinic. Rochester, Minnesota, 2006 – 2008
- Ph.D. Anthropology Department, Graduate Center, City University of New York, 2006
- MA. Anthropology Department, Universite Laval Quebec City. (Canada), 2000
- BA. Sociology, Universidad de la Republica. (UDELAR) Uruguay, 1992
Publications
Abadie, R., McLean, K., Habecker, P., Welch-Lazoritz, M., Khan, B., & Dombrowski, K. (2021). Treatment trajectories and barriers to recruitment and retention in opium agonist therapy for people who inject drugs in rural Puerto Rico. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102903
Abadie, R., Fisher, C.B., & Dombrowski, K. (2021). Privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity: Understandings from people who inject drugs enrolled in a study of social networks and HIV risk. Journal of Empirical Research Human Research Ethics. doi.org/10.1177/15562646211004411
Abadie, R., Gelpi-Acosta, C., Aquino-Ruiz, F., & Aponte-Melendez, Y. (2020). COVID-19 risks among people who inject drugs in Puerto Rico. Int. J. Drug Policy. doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102903
Abadie, R., Habecker, P., Gelpi-Acosta, C., Dombrowski, K. (2019). “Migration to the US among rural Puerto Ricans who Inject Drugs: Influential factors, sources of support, and challenges for harm reduction interventions”. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1-9.
Abadie, R. (2019). The Exploitation of Professional “Guinea Pigs” in the gig economy: The difficult road from consent to justice. American Journal of Bioethics, 19(9), 37-39.
Abadie, R., Goldenberg, S., Welch-Lazoritz, M., Fisher, C.B. (2018). “Establishing trust in HIV/HCV research among people who inject drugs (PWID): Insights from empirical research”. Plos One, doi.org/10371/journal.pone.0208410.
Abadie, R., Gelpi-Acosta, C., Davila, C., Rivera, A., Welch-Lazoritz, M., Dombrowski, K. (2018). “It Ruined My Life”: The effects of the War on Drugs on people who inject drugs (PWID) in rural Puerto Rico. International Journal of Drug Policy. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2017.06.11
Abadie R, Welch-Lazoritz M, Gelpi-Acosta C, Reyes J.C, Dombrowski K. (2016). “Prevalence and Risk Factors of HCV Infection among PWID in Rural Puerto Rico. Harm Reduction Journal. 13:10 doi: 10.1186/s12954-016-0099-9