Direct-to-Inject Buprenorphine: Evaluating a Novel Route for Buprenorphine Initiation in Outpatient Clinics and Street Medicine Settings

Sarah Rosenwohl-Mack, MD, MPH, AAHIVS • Primary Care Addiction Medicine Fellow • UCSF
 
Damian Peterson, PharmD, BCPP, BCPS, APh • Assistant Clinical Professor • UCSF School of Pharmacy
 
Hannah Snyder, MD • Associate Professor • UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine

Buprenorphine is a highly effective medication for opioid use disorder, but patients often struggle to start it. Direct-to-inject initiation, in which people are given a long-acting weekly injection of buprenorphine without prior sublingual dosing, is a promising new route to quickly initiate buprenorphine while minimizing withdrawal symptoms. Please join us this month for a presentation by Sarah Rosenwohl-Mack, Damian Peterson, and Hannah Snyder about the results of their evaluation of direct-to-inject buprenorphine in outpatient clinics and street medicine settings in San Francisco. They will address patient experience, retention on buprenorphine treatment, and workflow implementation, including development of a novel protocol to support outpatient settings in incorporating direct-to-inject initiations. They also will discuss ongoing quantitative and qualitative research in this area.

Sarah Rosenwohl-Mack is a UCSF Primary Care Addiction Medicine Fellow and Physician Specialist in Whole Person Integrated Care at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Her clinical practice focuses on addiction medicine, gender-affirming care, HIV care, and reproductive health.  Her research interests include harm reduction and novel routes of initiating buprenorphine.
 
Damian Peterson is Assistant Clinical Professor at the UCSF School of Pharmacy and a Psychiatric Clinical Pharmacist in Behavioral Health Services at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. He provides in-home psychiatric and substance use disorder treatment paired with medication delivery at supportive housing sites throughout San Francisco.
 
Hannah Snyder is Associate Professor in the UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine.  She is the Medical Director of the Family Health Center’s Bridge Clinic at San Francisco General Hospital and faculty in the UCSF Primary Care Addiction Medicine Fellowship.

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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 Bay Area investigators centering on 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 an interdisciplinary and interprofessional dialogue between those engaged in basic sciences, epidemiology, clinical, and public health research.  

We have returned to in-person meetings.  Our meetings are not recorded.  Please contact us if you’d like to present your work or research ideas for friendly consultation and peer review.