NY Times Magazine Features Public Health Institute’s Bridge Center on Buprenorphine as an Effective Treatment for Opioid Addiction

PHI’s Bridge saves lives by making it possible for people who use drugs to get treatment at any hospital—whenever and wherever they need it. Today, emergency rooms across the country implementing the Bridge program provide thousands of patients with equitable, accessible evidence-based care. 

Moises Velasquez-Manoff of The New York Times Magazine spent 18 months observing PHI’s Bridge model at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA, where he interviewed experts from PHI’s Bridge Center and their networks for an in-depth story on how to curb the opioid epidemic. PHI experts Dr. Andrew Herring and Dr. Aimee Moulin highlight the Bridge model which works to transform addiction treatment by ensuring that every hospital provides 24/7 access to evidence-based medication for addiction treatment, substance use navigators, and connections to ongoing care in the community. Herring and Moulin also address why more clinicians aren’t prescribing buprenorphine when research shows that medication for addiction treatment is highly effective and can significantly reduce the risk of overdose death.