N.E. governors convene, discuss opioid abuse crisis

Following a meeting that brought the five New England state governors to the Brandeis campus, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced that the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) Center of Excellence at Brandeis’ Heller School for Social Policy and Management will partner with the New England states to analyze data from each state’s prescription drug monitoring programs and recommend best practices to assist in the region’s fight against opioid abuse.
 
Patrick announced the partnership after meeting with Peter Kreiner, senior scientist at the Schneider Institutes for Health Policy and principal investigator at the PDMP Center of Excellence, and John Eadie, director of the Center of Excellence, at Brandeis on June 17.
 
Govs. Peter Shumlin (Vt.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Dan Malloy (Conn.) and Lincoln Chafee (R.I.) also participated in the meeting. Patrick and his fellow New England governors held a private roundtable discussion with Eadie, Kreiner and state health officials to discuss strategies for addressing the growing opioid abuse epidemic in the region.
 
The PDMP Center of Excellence collaborates with federal and state governments, health departments, and medical and pharmacy boards to combat prescription drug abuse.