CDC Opioid Prevention, Treatment and Research Network

The University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Addiction Medicine and Policy (CAMP), in partnership with Jefferson Health, has received federal funding to expand and evaluate innovative approaches for initiating medication treatment for opioid use disorder (MOUD) in emergency departments. The project will compare and refine two evidence-based models—Penn’s ED MOUD + CareConnect telehealth program and Jefferson’s ED MOUD + Bridge in-person care pathway—to increase same-day access to buprenorphine and methadone for patients following overdose or opioid withdrawal.

The research will produce a practical, evidence-informed toolkit to help emergency clinicians identify, treat, and link patients to ongoing addiction care, particularly in underserved communities most affected by overdose in Philadelphia. By embedding peer navigators, streamlining triage screening, and leveraging telehealth and community partnerships, the initiative aims to strengthen hospital-community linkages, reduce treatment disparities, and improve long-term engagement in recovery across diverse health systems.

The University of Arizona OPTRN collaborating center is implementing and evaluating a health-system approach to expand access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) within the emergency department at Banner–University Medical Center Tucson. Building on the principles of the CA Bridge model, the project integrates a Substance Use Navigator (SUN) into emergency care to strengthen identification of opioid use disorder, facilitate initiation and prescribing of MOUD, including buprenorphine, and support timely linkage to ongoing community-based treatment following discharge. The study also examines organizational, clinical, regulatory, reimbursement, and implementation factors that influence the scalability and sustainability of ED-based addiction treatment. The interdisciplinary team brings together expertise from public health, emergency medicine, addiction medicine, pharmacy, health systems, and community-engaged research. Ultimately, the Arizona project seeks to identify practical and sustainable strategies that can normalize evidence-based OUD treatment as part of routine emergency care and inform broader implementation of ED-based MOUD programs in diverse healthcare settings. More information can be found on the University’s affiliation center here. 

Project leadership includes Principal Investigator Scott C. Carvajal, PhD; Co-Principal Investigator Melody Glenn, MD, MFA, FASAM; Christopher Edwards, PharmD, BCPS, FASHP; Refugio Sepulveda, DrPH, MPH, MPA. 

Jefferson Addiction Multidisciplinary Service (JAMS) provides services through the Bridge Program, which is a single interdisciplinary care team provides comprehensive, coordinated, relationship-based care across medical outpatient, hospital, emergency department settings as well as addiction treatment system levels of care and recovery residences. In addition to the full spectrum of health needs, the program’s staff supports patients with social needs such as housing, legal aid, and food insecurity.

 
The University of Minnesota and HealthPartners/Regions Hospital are partnering with emergency care and EMS teams to expand low-barrier access to buprenorphine for opioid use disorder. Using an implementation-science approach, the initiative combines provider training, technical assistance, clinical workflow improvement, and continuous quality improvement to strengthen adoption of evidence-based buprenorphine treatment—including high-dose initiation—in emergency and prehospital settings.

Read more about the work here.

This four-year project, supported through the UW Prevention Research Center, strengthens care for people with opioid use disorder (OUD) in the emergency department (ED) through three aims: validating an opioid artificial intelligence screener to identify patients at high risk for OUD, increasing the rate of patients who initiate buprenorphine treatment in the ED, and enhancing linkage to ongoing outpatient and community-based care.

Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, MD, MPH, professor, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, and Jill Denson, PhD, MSW, APSW, director, UW Prevention Research Center, will serve as co-primary investigators. They are joined by co-investigators Randy Brown, MD, PhD (Department of Family Medicine and Community Health); Hanna Barton, PhD, Collin Michels, MD, and Brian Patterson, MD, MPH (BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine); and Majid Afshar, MD, MS (Department of Medicine).

Read more about the grant award here.

For additional resources and educational materials, please visit the webpage below:

CDC Opioid Prevention, Treatment and Research Network Education & Resources