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Connecticut Medicine Devotes Issue to Opioid Crisis

May 13, 2019

With opioid overdose the leading cause of death in Connecticut since 2013 for people under 50 years old, what is the medical community doing to fight this public health crisis?

In a special edition of Connecticut Medicine called “Finding Hope in the Battle against the Opioid Overdose Crisis,” guest editors Dr. Craig Allen (Rushford’s medical director) and Dr. Rocco Orlando (Hartford HealthCare’s chief medical officer) devote four articles to the expansion of evidence-based care for patients at high risk for opioid abuse, another on life-saving treatments and a profile of Connecticut’s Professional Health Program and how it can help healthcare professionals.

Dr. Allen is an active member of the Medical Society’s Addictions Committee and Opioid Task Force and the state Alcohol and Drug Policy Committee, where he chairs the Addictions Subcommittee. In addition, he is on the board for the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and, with HHC, is co-chair of the Opioid Management Council.

Under Dr. Orlando, Hartford HealthCare has implemented a variety of initiatives to address the opioid crisis, including professional education, patient education brochures and the introduction of electronic-decision support in the system’s electronic health record.

“Finding Hope” is available here.

For more information on help for opioid use disorder at Rushford, click here. For information on the Hartford HealthCare Behavioral Health Network’s MATCH program, click here.