Clinton Foundation, Johns Hopkins to Co-Host Summit on the Opioid Epidemic October 30 at Bloomberg School of Public Health
Participants include President Bill Clinton; Rep. Elijah Cummings (MD-7th); Ellen MacKenzie, Dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Michael Botticelli, former director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; Carol Forster, Physician Director of Pharmacy & Therapeutics and Medication Safety, Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group; Tom Geddes, CEO, Plank Industries; Jim Hood, Co-Founder and CEO, Facing Addiction; Tom Synan, Chief of Police, Newtown, Ohio; Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers; and Leana Wen, Health Commissioner, City of Baltimore; who will discuss policies and recommendations to reverse deepening epidemic
BALTIMORE, MD – Leaders from across the public health, business, labor, law enforcement, government and employment sectors will convene on Monday, Oct. 30 at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, MD, for a one-day summit: “The Opioid Epidemic: From Evidence to Impact.” This summit, focusing on what has become the worst drug epidemic in U.S. history, is co-sponsored by the Clinton Health Matters Initiative, an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, and the Bloomberg School’s Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness and the Center for Injury Research and Policy. The event will be live-streamed.
The summit coincides with the release of a new report, also titled “The Opioid Epidemic: From Evidence to Impact,” that provides comprehensive, evidence-based recommendations aimed at reversing the deepening crisis. The report includes an introduction by President Clinton, and was edited by Bloomberg School faculty G. Caleb Alexander, MD, MS, Shannon Frattaroli, PhD, MPH, and Andrea Gielen, ScD. The report will be made available to media on an embargoed basis on Thursday, October 26.
WHAT: “The Opioid Epidemic: From Evidence to Impact” Summit
WHEN: Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, 10 AM – 12:30 PM
WHERE:
Sommer Hall – Room E2014
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
615 N. Wolfe Street
Baltimore, MD 21205
Media who wish to attend these morning sessions must register in advance with Robin Scullin, director of media and public relations at the Bloomberg School, at rsculli@jhu.edu
Opening Remarks:
President Bill Clinton, founder of the Clinton Foundation and 42nd President of the United States; Rep. Elijah Cummings (MD-7th); and Ellen MacKenzie, PhD, Dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Panel One:
Moderator: President Clinton
Tom Geddes, CEO, Plank Industries
Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers
Rep. Elijah Cummings (MD-7th)
Leana Wen, MD, MSc, FAAEM, Health Commissioner, City of Baltimore
Panel Two:
Moderator: Michael Botticelli, MEd, Executive Director, Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center; Distinguished Policy Scholar, the Bloomberg School; former Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in the Obama administration
Jim Hood, Co-Founder and CEO, Facing Addiction
Tom Synan, Chief of Police, Newtown, Ohio
Eric Poellot, MDiv, MSW, Senior Community Minister & Shaping Sanctuary, Project Director, Judson Memorial Church
Carol Forster, MD, Physician Director, Pharmacy & Therapeutics/Medication Safety, Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group
Closing Remarks:
G. Caleb Alexander, MD, MS, Co-Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness
Andrea Gielen, ScD, Director, Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy
The event will be live-streamed at jhsph.edu/OpioidSummit*. Follow the conversation on Twitter: #OpioidSummit. Watch the event on Facebook Live at Facebook.com/JohnsHopkinsSPH.
Event Background:
Opioid deaths continue to rise, despite declarations of emergency by six governors and, more recently, the current administration, together with efforts at many levels designed to address the crisis.
Overdose deaths from opioids have quadrupled since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2016, more than 64,000 people died from drug overdoses in the U.S., up from nearly 54,000 in 2015, and more than any year on record. Of the total overdose deaths in 2016 for which the type of drug is known, multiple drugs were often involved. For instance, heroin was reported in more than 15,000 deaths; other opioids, including prescription pain medications and fentanyl, numbered more than 34,000, according to the CDC.
President Bill Clinton, Congressman Elijah Cummings and Bloomberg School Dean Ellen J. MacKenzie, PhD, MSc, will make introductory remarks, followed by two morning panels. The first, moderated by President Clinton, will address the opioid epidemic and the workplace. President Clinton just this month discussed the epidemic and how to address the wide range of challenges with G. Caleb Alexander, MD, MS, co-director of the Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness at the Bloomberg School.
“The epidemic touches employers— and employees—in so many ways, from employee health and wellness to productivity to health care insurance,” said Alexander. “It is vital that employers are engaged and implementing effective programs to reduce the overuse of prescription opioids as well as mitigate the incredible toll that heroin and illicit fentanyl continue to take on America’s workers.”
The second panel will be moderated by Michael Botticelli, former director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in the Obama administration and a Distinguished Policy Scholar at the Bloomberg School. The panel will examine how the epidemic is impacting groups at the community level, such as first responders who see these largely preventable tragedies every day, and includes representatives from health care, clergy and law enforcement.
“From an injury prevention lens, this epidemic poses challenges similar to other injury problems in which a product delivers both benefits and harms,” says Shannon Frattaroli, PhD, MPH, associate director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Bloomberg School. “There are evidence-based solutions that help to prevent the harms in ways that need not compromise the benefits. For instance, overdoses can happen when someone other than the patient to whom the opioid medication was prescribed can access those medications for their own use, or to sell them to others. Safer packaging that doesn’t allow such access could help prevent that.”
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