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The UH PREMIER Center is receiving funding to combat the rising tide of opioid addiction and death
Fighting the rising tide of opioid addiction and death, the Prescription Drug Misuse Education and Research (PREMIER) Center at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy has received an additional $3.34 million in funding from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission over the next two years. The center's fundamental priority—reducing the risks of prescription drug abuse—is based on and supported by a grim reality: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 1999 and 2017, more than 200,000 deaths in the United States were attributed to prescription opioid overdose, reflecting the trend toward...
The UH PREMIER Center is receiving funding to combat the rising tide of opioid addiction and death
Fighting the rising tide of opioid addiction and death, the Prescription Drug Misuse Education and Research (PREMIER) Center at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy has received an additional $3.34 million in funding from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission over the next two years.
The center's fundamental priority – reducing the risks of prescription drug abuse – is based on and supported by a grim reality: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 1999 and 2017, more than 200,000 deaths in the United States were attributed to prescription opioid overdose, highlighting the trend toward a growing nationwide epidemic.
The funding will support three distinct projects: removing unused controlled substances from homes; Helping physicians and health systems reduce patient risk when initially prescribing opioids; and providing training for pharmacists to improve the safe dispensing of opioids in community settings.
Hundreds of millions of prescriptions for controlled substances are written and filled each year, making risk reduction a critical priority.
Since its founding in 2018, PREMIER Center has distributed nearly half a million safe drug disposal products for home use to provide a convenient and environmentally friendly method of drug disposal.
Providing single-use disposal systems to pharmacies, first responders, community coalition partnerships, school districts and other organizations across the state remains essential to the success of this initiative.”
Douglas Thornton, director of the PREMIER Center and associate professor in the College of Pharmacy
"We have increased the number of individual distributors served by a handful of community coalition partnerships to 718 different organizations in every corner of the state. Our focus now remains on gathering the evidence to support scalable drug disposal programs with measurable processes and outcomes."
Among these collaborations, the PREMIER Center has worked with three Texas Medical Center health systems to support opioid stewardship interventions by translating research findings into practice that benefit patients: Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston Methodist Hospital and St. Luke's Health.
The center also has a significant focus on education, having provided materials that provide guidance on how to use controlled substances safely and effectively to more than 100,000 people across Texas.
To continue to keep patients healthy, especially those using controlled substance medications, the PREMIER Center is encouraging healthcare providers to find new ways to reduce risk when prescribing or filling opioid prescriptions.
"The center is also evaluating risk reduction strategies to ensure patient safety at the time of initial opioid prescription. We hope to combine the voices of prescribers and patients to provide recommendations on risk reduction tools to improve clinical efficiency and patient safety," Thornton said.
Thornton's PREMIER team includes Matthew Wanat, clinical associate professor of pharmacy practice, and Tyler Varisco, assistant professor of pharmaceutical health outcomes and policy.
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