2020 SAEMF/NIDA Mentor-Facilitated Training Award - $12,000

“Increasing Provider Awareness and Prescription of Buprenorphine for Opioid Use Disorder in a New York City Emergency Department”

Over the past decade, ED visits nationwide for opioid overdose have become more and more common, and the rates of death from overdose have hit staggering levels, with levels in New York City continuously above the nation’s average. Addressing this crisis has been challenging, necessitating a multidisciplinary approach. Recently, the initiation of medications which act as partial opioid agonists (or antagonists) in the ED along with treatment referrals have been shown to be superior to referrals alone, suggesting that their initiation in the ED may be associated with improved patient outcomes. This project will develop and execute a plan to increase provider knowledge of the use of ED initiated buprenorphine in a single site urban academic medical center with high presentations of SUD and OUD.