SAN ANTONIO (Feb. 22, 2018) ― Jennifer Sharpe Potter, Ph.D., M.P.H., from UT Health San Antonio, has received a $1 million contract to train health care professionals throughout Texas in how to use buprenorphine to treat patients with opioid use disorder.
Get Waivered TX (#GetWaiveredTX), will kick off March 2 at UT Health San Antonio. The training will be held from 8 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. in the Academic Learning & Teaching Center of UT Health San Antonio, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive.
Advance registration is required on the www.getwaiveredtx.com website.
Buprenorphine is an opioid-derived medication used to treat opioid use disorder. Prescribing buprenorphine requires special training and a DEA X-waiver to prescribe buprenorphine in an outpatient setting.
“Fewer than 2,500 health care providers in Texas currently are eligible to provide buprenorphine treatment,” said Dr. Potter, professor in the Department of Psychiatry and vice dean for research in the Long School of Medicine. She is a national expert on opioid use and opioid use disorder.
“Training 1,000 more professionals will be a good start in providing access to underserved populations throughout Texas who have opioid use disorder,” she said.
“In one study comparing buprenorphine treatment to placebo, after one year of treatment, 100 percent of patients on placebo had relapsed compared to 25 percent of patients on buprenorphine,” Dr. Potter said.
She received the funding for Get Waivered TX from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through a contract with the Texas Department of State Health Services.
To learn more about Get Waivered Texas and to register for training, visit www.GetWaiveredTx.com.
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