OPEN Team Attends 2024 Rx Summit
This past April, team members visited Atlanta, Georgia for the 2024 Rx and Illicit Drug Summit. The Rx Summit is the largest national collaboration for professionals from local, state, and federal organizations to gather and discuss the impact of the drug epidemic. Attendees can collaborate and learn in multiple ways, including visiting exhibitor booths, viewing poster sessions, and attending speaker presentations. This year, along with running an exhibitor booth where we shared educational resources with attendees, OPEN team members also gave two poster presentations.
One poster presented, titled “Experiences with Implementing Statewide Medication Disposal Programs in Michigan,” highlighted OPEN’s work in promoting safe disposal resources and opportunities of medications across the state. “OPEN’s disposal poster shared metrics of success for four different programs surrounding safe medication disposal. The poster demonstrated program reach across Michigan, lessons learned, suggestions for other organizations looking to implement similar programs, and recommendations for tailoring specific programs to target populations,” said Chelsea Graham, Program Coordinator at OPEN. “The poster was well received! Law enforcement agencies, the CDC, the FDA, universities, state health departments, and nonprofits were interested in our disposal programs and the resources we offer online.”
The second poster presented by OPEN, titled “A pivotal moment in care: Exploring the adoption of the AUDIT-C as a screening tool in perioperative clinical settings,” focused on our experience at Michigan Medicine adopting the AUDIT-C, a concise, standardized screening tool for alcohol use, into surgical care. Dominic Alessio, an OPEN Research Assistant who presented on the topic, shared that after examining over 3,700 surgical encounters over 2.5 years, approximately 1 in 3 surgical patients successfully completed the questionnaire, with the completion rate for individual surgical services ranging from 1 in 7 to 1 in 2. Of those with completed scores, 6.5% fell within the moderate- or high-risk categories for preoperative alcohol intake.
“What stood out to me most was the surprising number of attendees from other institutions who were already at least peripherally familiar with AUDIT-C and its potential for improving surgical care. However, the unifying theme from everyone I spoke with was the challenges of implementing any new, standardized tool across an entire health system, as well as the complexities of understanding both the barriers and facilitators toward successful implementation,” commented Alessio.
A recurring theme OPEN team members found at this year’s conference was the recognition of OPEN’s name and work in this field. “It was nice to hear from people that have accessed our services and shared how helpful they found them,” said Katrina Hernandez, a Behavioral Health Consultant at OPEN.
“A standout moment for me at the 2024 Rx Summit was just how forward-thinking OPEN is. OPEN stands at the front of tackling overdose, opioid use disorder treatment, and innovative strategies to engage communities in the state of Michigan,” added Megan Collett, one of OPEN’s Behavioral Health Consultants.
Several team members stated that attendees would share that they were familiar with our work and interested in learning more about our recent ventures. Graham shared “When I was presenting my poster, a representative from the FDA approached and saw Dr. Bicket’s name on our poster. She then mentioned that she works with him at the federal level and is very familiar with OPEN’s work. It’s wonderful to see firsthand how quickly the OPEN name is recognized, even at an out-of-state conference.”
Learn more about OPEN’s safe disposal initiative and screening for SUD, and get involved with our programming today.