The NY Node held a full-day in-person meeting in New York City on Oct. 17, 2025. The annual meeting brought together more than 90 participants from New York, New Jersey, and Maryland. The goal of the meeting was to understand clinical and research priorities of service providers and public health partners, identify key areas for collaboration, and shape the Node’s research agenda within the national CTN. Attendees represented major health systems and FQHCs, governmental and public health agencies, community-based treatment and low barrier programs, and academic trainees and investigators. The program started with an overview of the NY Node and CTN, followed by three panels: (1) SUD Health Services Perspectives; (2) Low-Barrier Treatment and Research Collaborations; and (3) Research Priorities for Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders. Afternoon breakout sessions and a large-group discussion focused on research priorities and strategies to improve substance use care. The meeting provided a wonderful opportunity to connect with colleagues and share ideas. We look forward to our 2026 meeting and continuing to build collaborations to advance research within the CTN. Posted December 12, 2025.

CTN-0151 at AMERSA 2025 CTN-0151 was featured at the Association for Multidisciplinary Education and Research in Substance Use and Addiction (AMERSA) 2025 conference with the poster: “Stakeholder Perspectives on Community Pharmacists’ Prescribing and Management of Buprenorphine for Opioid Use Disorder Under a Collaborative Pharmacy Practice Agreement,” presented by Greater Intermountain Node Clinical Research Coordinator, Melissa Tysko. The poster highlighted CTN-0151’s goal to develop a model for community pharmacist-managed buprenorphine for opioid use disorder. As part of the study, researchers conducted qualitative interviews with stakeholders in community pharmacy and MOUD treatment—including pharmacists, physicians, patients, recovery support organizations, and payors. Interviews were analyzed using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research. Findings showed strong support across stakeholder groups for this model of care, emphasizing its potential to reduce provider workload and improve patient access to treatment. Key considerations for implementation included adaptability, integration into existing pharmacy workflows and technology, and strategies to measure performance and care quality. Let’s Talk About Drugs in the Intermountain West Podcast Our node’s umbrella program, the Program of Addiction Research, Clinical Care, Knowledge, and Advocacy (PARCKA), hosts a weekly podcast: Let’s Talk About Drugs in the Intermountain West (LTAD). Each episode offers fresh conversations about addiction and highlights efforts to address substance use disorders in the Greater Intermountain West. Starting January 7, 2026, LTAD will launch a special 12-week series titled “Use With Care,” focused on overdose prevention and harm reduction. This series will feature local experts and advocates discussing topics such as harm reduction 101, safer…

Long-time Pacific Northwest Node member Andy Saxon, MD is the recipient of the 2025 Outstanding Achievement and Service Award from the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP). This honor is presented to an outstanding member of the community who works in the field of addiction and who has contributed significantly to the science, teaching, treatment, and/or advocacy related to substance use disorders and co-occurring mental illness. Before his entry into psychiatry, Dr. Saxon completed an internal medicine internship and worked for four years as an emergency room physician. Following a general psychiatry residency at UW, Dr. Saxon has more than four decades of experience as a clinical and research addiction psychiatrist. He sits on the editorial boards of the journals, Drug and Alcohol Dependence and General Hospital Psychiatry. He is a lifetime Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, where he served as the chair of the Council on Addiction Psychiatry from 2017-2019. He’s a fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, as well as a member of College on Problems of Drug Dependence and of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry. He has given numerous presentations at conferences and has more than 200 papers published in peer reviewed journals. Congratulations, Dr. Saxon!