Member of the Graduate Faculty | Research Professor, Family and Community Medicine | Professor, Family and Community Medicine
Dr. Meyerson directs the Harm Reduction Research Lab at the College of Medicine – Tucson, is the Policy Director for the Comprehensive Center for Pain and Addiction, and is faculty of UArizona's LGBTQI+ Institute. She has three decades of public health practice and research experience, typified by roles as president of a policy research consultancy focused on HIV and sexually-transmitted diseases with an international portfolio, as the state AIDS/STD director for the state of Missouri, and directing a non-profit AIDS service organization.
'M-Power is an effort to collaboratively develop ombuds and clinic oversight functions to improve buprenorphine and methadone treatment quality through patient advocacy and empowerment and through clinic oversight.
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' + 'The Vitalyst Health Foundation funded project includes the following AIMS:
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' + 'Design an Arizona MOUD ombudsperson role to advocate for better care.
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' + 'Design a MOUD clinic review board to serve as a ‘watchdog’ for MOUD treatment quality and safety.
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' + 'The research team includes a project coordinator from the Comprehensive Center for Pain and Addiction (Cronin), methadone patient experts (Lorenz and Rochelle) and a pre-med student (Mueller). Together, Meyerson's team will develop the system innovations with counsel from the statewide Drug Policy Research and Advocacy Board (DPRAB).'
The National Institute on Drug Abuse awarded a grant to Dr. Beth Meyerson from the Harm Reduction Research Lab of the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson the project 'MPACT' (Methadone Patient Access to Collaborative Treatment). The goal of MPACT is to improve the quality of methadone treatment by addressing the traumatic experiences of both patients and staff in Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs).
This multimodal experimental intervention is being tested in Arizona opioid treatment programs ('methadone clinics) now and will be tested in 30 clinics across the U.S. in a subsequent trial.
MPACT was co-designed by a team of people on methadone in Arizona (patients) and methadone treatment providers from 3 clinics across all clinic roles. The MPACT transdisciplinary research team includes scholars from 5 universities and one CBO: medical sociologists (New York University), systems and policy researchers (University of Arizona, Western Michigan University), social workers (Southwest Recovery Alliance, University of Arizona), psychologists (University of Arizona), workforce development experts (Western Michigan University), medical providers in medicine and nursing (Indiana University), implementation scientists (University of Arizona and University of Kentucky) and biostatisticians (Columbia University). For more information, go to the Harm Reduction Research Lab: https://tinyurl.com/HarmReductionResearchLab