News Coverage

Baltimore City Announces New Opioid Treatment Initiative (Baltimore Magazine)

Apr 30th, 2018

On Monday morning, Mayor Catherine Pugh and Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen announced a new initiative to combat the opioid epidemic in the city. The Levels of Care initiative involves identifying best practices for responding to the opioid epidemic and will be based in 11 Baltimore hospitals included Bon Secours, Mercy Medical Center, St. Agnes, University of Maryland, and Johns Hopkins Bayview. 

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Leana Wenopioids

Baltimore to Rate Hospitals on Opioid Response (U.S. News & World Report)

Apr 30th, 2018

Baltimore city hospitals soon will be scored on how prepared they are to respond to the opioid epidemic, the city's health department announced Monday. 

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Leana Wenopioids

Teen Pregnancy Prevention suit against HHS is a huge win for Baltimore City (The Hill)

Apr 30th, 2018

In her op-ed, Dr. Wen explains the importance of Baltimore City's victory in the lawsuit against HHS: 

This ruling is ultimately about our children and their children. I hope that the value of science and evidence will continue to be recognized and I look forward to continuing to fulfill our responsibility of protecting the health and ensuring the well-being of our youth.

Read the entire op-ed.

Leana Wen

How the D.C. region is responding to the opioid crisis (D.C. Policy Center)

Apr 30th, 2018

The number of Americans who have died in the ongoing opioid epidemic continues to climb. Between September 2016 and September 2017, more than 45,600 Americans died from overdoses involving opioids. The number of fatal opioid-related overdoses in D.C. more than doubled between 2015 and 2016, and continued to rise in 2017. While Baltimore has not yet published its final numbers for the previous year, preliminary data for the first three quarters of 2017 suggests a similar trend.

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Leana Wenopioidsnaloxone

City to certify hospitals that adopt best practices for treating opioid addiction (Baltimore Fishbowl)

Apr 30th, 2018

In a new initiative being launched with 11 Baltimore hospitals, the City Health Department plans to certify each one that adopts “best practices” for treating patients who overdose on opioids or are struggling with addiction. 

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Leana Wenopioids

New Baltimore initiative hopes to more closely involve hospitals in fight against opioid epidemic (Baltimore Sun)

Apr 29th, 2018

Baltimore officials will announce an initiative on Monday meant to give the city’s 11 hospitals incentive to play a bigger role in ending the opioid epidemic.

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Congress and the President Must Respond to the Opioid Crisis (The Afro)

Apr 27th, 2018

In this op-ed, Representative Elijah Cummings discusses the opioid epidemic, Dr. Wen's advice about how to combat it, and the legislation he and Senator Warren recently introduced, the Comprehensive Addiction Resources Emergency (CARE) Act. 

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Leana Wenopioids

Federal judge rules against Trump Administration over termination of HHS grant (WEAA)

Apr 27th, 2018

By issuing this ruling, Judge Blake vacated HHS’s decision to prematurely terminate Baltimore’s five-year Teen Pregnancy Prevention Grant, and ordered HHS to process Baltimore’s application for continued funding under the grant.  Baltimore City Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen talked with WEAA’s Julius White about the ruling.

Listen here.

 

Leana Wen

Class-action lawsuit targets Trump cuts to teen pregnancy prevention (The Hill)

Apr 27th, 2018

A class-action lawsuit filed Friday morning argues the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) illegally ended grants to 81 organizations participating in a federal teen pregnancy prevention program. 

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Experts Urge Faster Movement on Health Care Data (U.S. News & World Report)

Apr 27th, 2018

HEALTH PROFESSIONALS shouldn't wait for the perfect data to come along before planning interventions to improve population health, experts say, because there is no perfect data. 

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Leana Wen

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