Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have been awarded a five-year, $7.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Helping End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) initiative.

The NIH HEAL initiative, which launched in 2018, was created to seek out scientific solutions to stem the national opioid and pain public health crises. The funding is a component of the HEAL Data 2 Motion (HD2A) program, designed to make use of real-time data to guide actions and alter processes toward reducing overdoses and improving opioid use disorder treatment and pain management.

With the support of the grant, researchers will create an information infrastructure support center to help HD2A innovation projects at other institutions across the country. These innovation projects are designed to handle gaps in 4 areas-;prevention, harm reduction, treatment of opioid use disorder and recovery support.

Our center’s goal is to remove barriers in order that solutions might be more streamlined and rapidly distributed.”

Meredith C.B. Adams, M.D., associate professor of anesthesiology, biomedical informatics, physiology and pharmacology, and public health sciences at Wake Forest University School of Medicine

By monitoring opioid overdoses in real time, researchers will have the opportunity to discover trends and gaps in resources in local communities where services are most needed.

“We are going to collect and analyze data that can inform prevention and treatment services,” Adams said. “We’re shifting chronic pain and opioid care in communities to quickly offer solutions.”

The middle may even develop data-related resources, education and training related to substance use, pain management and the reduction of opioid overdoses.

In response to the CDC, there was a 29% increase in drug overdose deaths within the U.S. in 2020, and nearly 75% of those deaths involved an opioid.

“Given the scope of the opioid crises, which was only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s imperative that we improve and create recent prevention strategies,” Adams said. “The funding will create the infrastructure for rapid intervention.”

Source:

Wake Forest University School of Medicine