Interview opportunity available:
Thursday, February 9, from 4 to 5:30 p.m. ET
Fatal drug overdoses, on the rise in the United States for the last two decades, have surged even higher during the COVID-19 pandemic. The availability of medication-based opioid treatment programs has not increased apace with the growing medical need.
Available expert:
Dr. Jonathan Watanabe is a professor of clinical pharmacy and a health-policy expert at the University of California, Irvine. He can discuss topics including:
- Regulatory, geographic, financial, and other barriers to accessing medications for opioid use disorder;
- Need for enhanced treatment capacity for opioid use disorder;
- Problems with the available data about opioid use disorder and treatments in the United States;
- The economic and social cost of opioid-related deaths; and
- The role of pharmacists in enhancing treatment, coordination, screening for and educating people about opioid use disorder.
Declared interests:
Dr. Watanabe serves as a member of the Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He is a distinguished fellow of the Get the Medications Right Institute. He serves on the task force of the California Health Benefit Review Program. He previously served on the Committee on Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder and, separately, The Methadone Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder: Examining Federal Regulations and Laws Committee, both of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.