“When historians trace back the roots of today’s opioid epidemic, they often find themselves returning to the wave of addiction that swept the U.S. in the late 19th century. That was when physicians first got their hands on morphine: a truly effective treatment for pain, delivered first by tablet and then by the newly invented
“The head of the nation’s top public health agency says the opioid epidemic will be one of his priorities, and he revealed a personal reason for it: His son almost died from taking cocaine contaminated with the powerful painkiller fentanyl. “For me, it’s personal. I almost lost one of my children from it,” Dr. Robert
“In the decades since the crack epidemic, our country has learned an important lesson: there is no arresting our way out of drug addiction. The failed “War on Drugs” put too many people in jail instead of treatment, a mistake that cost us countless lives and taxpayer dollars. Now, we’re facing a new drug crisis
Still, some say the legislation is not enough to make the large-scale changes needed to fight the epidemic. Addiction advocates largely praise the measures as good steps forward, but say that much more work and funding is needed to tackle the issue’s scale… The legislation, passed Friday, includes a range of measures to fight the
“The incident command system kicked in at Brigham and Women’s Hospital about a week ago. A large team of doctors, pharmacists, and nurses began assembling every morning to confront an emerging crisis with the potential to severely undermine care for patients. The challenge was different than it was during the Boston Marathon bombing, another event
I have recently been posting CURATED CONTEMPORANEOUS CASE STUDIES with the objective of developing real-time health care policy information and analysis. The OPIOID CRISIS has been a real challenge absent any federal government leadership for state governments, public health agencies, hospitals, and the public. So this post is to catch-up on the various threads out
“The opioid crisis has cost the U.S. $1 trillion since 2001, according to Altarum, a nonprofit health research firm. Those costs have been increasing more rapidly over the past few years, and Altarum projects they’ll grow by another $500 billion just by 2020. By the numbers: Most of that $1 trillion comes from lost wages,