Panel, Conference Presentation
Combatting the Crisis of Opioids
Milken InstituteSabrina Spitaletta, Alan M. Muney, Joe Smyser, Nora Volkow, Greg Walden, James A. Winnefeld, Jr.
- The Milken Institute will host ongoing discussions and collaborative actions addressing the opioid crisis from the end of the current year through future periods, aiming to operate as an "action tank" to facilitate immediate intervention.
- Fentanyl-related overdose fatalities are projected to continue rising, increasing from a range of 200–300 fatalities seven years prior to 20,000 in the current period, while cocaine-related fatalities are expected to rise extremely and rapidly.
- A nonprofit organization plans to deploy four distinct lines of operation—public awareness, prevention, prescription medicine, and treatment/recovery—with resolution expected to occur primarily at the community level alongside federal and state efforts.
- The Energy and Commerce Committee has scheduled major distributor CEOs to appear before the Oversight and Investigations Committee on May 8 and anticipates needing to change laws to keep pace with synthetic opioids evolving faster than current legislation.
- Legislative plans include changes to Medicaid and Medicare funding to leverage telemedicine, expand Suboxone prescribing, address reimbursement strategies, implement PDMPs and e-prescribing, and authorize pharmacists to decline fills.
- Cigna intends to collaborate with physicians, dentists, and community leaders to deploy safeguards and expand counseling, while advocating for the deployment of Narcan wherever AEDs exist and questioning why airlines do not universally carry the antidote.
- Cigna expects that if laws support data collaboration among physicians, it will enable a holistic approach, and argues that merging treatment plans with data is necessary to prevent missed prevention opportunities and reduce stigma.
- The nonprofit The Good Project plans to utilize big data and partnerships with tech firms and healthcare systems to operationalize public health research and analyze search queries to better understand the epidemic.
- Public health messaging is expected to require tailoring for specific demographics, including 18–25 year olds, rural populations, and older adults, to avoid being perceived as tone-deaf.
- Research focusing on the transition from high school to college is expected to identify a critical area for preventing opioid uptake, with experts noting the younger generation may be more open to discussing addiction than the older generation.
- The healthcare system is expected to increase doctor accountability for identifying and addressing suicidal behavior in overdose patients, a process currently lacking full communication and monitoring.
- Experts warn that if stigma is not reduced, individuals will not enter treatment, and solving the prescription drug problem without addressing street-level heroin and fentanyl will fail to resolve the epidemic.
- National Take Back Day efforts are expected to be improved to become simple, safe, and "no questions asked" processes similar to recycling, while changing pain management behaviors toward traditional anti-inflammatories will require better education and strategic rethinking.
- Data is expected to be made publicly available with input from public health professionals listening to community needs, potentially reframing criminal justice approaches to drugs to address other demographics affected by large-scale epidemics.
- Providing the healthcare system with greater tools to manage addiction as a standard disease is expected to result in automatic acceptance of treatment, though families and communities remain the first line of defense in preventing addiction.