Svikis, director of the Center for Addiction and Pregnancy at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, is honored for her work as the lead author of a cutting-edge research article titled "Cost-effectiveness of treatment for drug-abusing pregnant women." Her study documented the clinical and economic efficacy for providing drug treatment to chemically dependent pregnant women. In the study, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and drug treatment costs were compared in two groups of pregnant women--those who received treatment and those who didn't. Treatment patients showed better clinical outcome at delivery, with less drug use and higher infant estimated gestational age, birthweight and Apgar scores. Infants of treatment patients were also less likely to require NICU services. Total cost (drug treatment and NICU) for treated women was $4,644 less per mother/infant than NICU costs alone for the infants of untreated mothers.

Svikis has dedicated nearly a decade of her clinical and research efforts to the high-risk population of drug-dependent pregnant women and their children. From 1990-1992, she partnered with Mary McCaul, PhD, to develop and implement the Comprehensive Women's Center at Johns Hopkins. The center was the first specialized women's chemical dependency treatment program in Baltimore. It provides specialized services to intravenous cocaine and opiate dependent women.

In 1992, Svikis became program director of the Center for Addiction and Pregnancy (CAP), a treatment center with a full continuum of care for pregnant and postpartum drug-dependent women and their children. CAP offers a 16-bed residential unit and an 85-slot intensive day treatment component and is considered a model program for this population.