About Rebecca Haffajee, J.D., Ph.D., M.P.H.

Rebecca Haffajee is Assistant Professor of health management and policy at the U-M School of Public Health, and also a lawyer whose work intersects law and public health. Her research looks at the effects of behavioral health and pharmaceutical policies. She can comment on the overall opioid problem, alternative therapies and use of data to track and analyze prescribing trends.

What You'll Hear

• Recent statistics surrounding opioid misuse and overdose, and explanations for why the rate of overdose is rising
 
• The relationship between illicit and legally prescribed opioid use in the epidemic
 
• The history of previous opioid epidemics in the 20th Century
 
• The history of opioids in treating pain as a “fifth vital sign”
 
• The recent history of state legislatures’ responses to the opioid epidemic (such as prescription drug monitoring programs)
 
• Factors that contribute to different prescription trends across various states
 
• The role of pain clinics in opioid prescription and distribution
 
• The practical impacts of the President's declaration of a "National Emergency" or a "Public Health Emergency" (i.e. the differences between the Stafford Act, the FEMA fund, and the Public Health Emergency Fund)
 
• What we mean by "structural determinants" of the opioid epidemic