Community-Based Approaches to Mitigate the Effects of Substance Use Disorder

The number of deaths attributed to drug use has increased dramatically in the US over the past decade, with over 109,000 overdose deaths in 2023. On average, over 10% of Americans struggle with some form of substance use disorder during their lifetime. To help mitigate the significant social and economic burden of substance use and addiction, an integrated set of interventions and policies is required. In this seminar, Paul will present systems models to support two interventions for improving harm reduction at the community level that are currently being piloted in Pennsylvania, namely drone delivery of naloxone and smart vending machines. He will then discuss “fair” allocation strategies for helping communities (namely, single county authorities) use funds provided by the $26B opioid settlement through an effort called Elevate PA.

Bio: Paul Griffin is the Lucas Professor of Industrial Engineering and a co-funded faculty member in the Consortium on Substance Use and Addiction in the Social Science Research Institute at Penn State University. His research and teaching interests include health systems engineering, health analytics, and supply chain engineering. Before Penn State, Paul was the St. Vincent Health Chair at Purdue University and director of the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering. He was also the Joseph C. Mello Chair in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech, where he started his academic career after completing his PhD in Industrial Engineering at Texas A&M University. He is a fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.