Will Our Patients Be Pushed Further Into the Margins by Digital Technology, and Can We Do Anything About It?

Joseph Tay, MB BCh BAO, DCH, PGDipEpid, MRCGP, MSc
Visiting Scholar, Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative • Center for Vulnerable Populations • UCSF

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Digital Health Interventions (DHI) many of which are supported by generative AI are an increasing reality of patient care.  Loosely, we can categorize these into patient facing, clinician facing, administrative and big data analytics.  Please join us this month for a presentation by Dr. Joe Tay, who will explore some findings from the literature on Telemedicine-delivered Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (TMOUD), Rapid Overdose Opioid Reversal Systems (ROORS), and a more nuanced way of thinking about the digital divide and mitigation strategies.

Joe Tay (he/him) is a 2023–24 U.K. Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice and a visiting scholar at the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative. He has been a general practitioner (family doctor) working with marginalized groups and populations in Edinburgh for over 15 years and an addiction medicine physician. He is currently the clinical director for Forward Leeds, the second largest integrated addiction care service in England. He is an honorary lecturer at St Andrews University School of Medicine, where he looks at the use of technology to improve systems providing care for people with addiction problems and inclusion health groups.

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The UCSF Drug Use Research Group (DURG) is a city-wide seminar attended by faculty, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and other investigators with a focus on and for persons who use drugs.  Started in 2005 after a friendly debate between an epidemiologist and anthropologist on the merits of quantitative versus qualitative research methods, the DURG monthly seminars provide a community platform for new and established investigators to present their work, explore research questions and methods, and to prepare for grant applications and the dissemination of findings in a supportive environment.  The seminar has been successful in cultivating new collaborations and mentorship and in sustaining interdisciplinary and interprofessional dialogue between those engaged in basic sciences, epidemiology, clinical, and public health research.  COVID-19 surges permitting, we have returned to in-person meetings on second Wednesday afternoons from September-June.