Samuel T. Edwards, MD, MPH; Elizabeth R. Hooker, MS, MPH; Rebecca Brienza, MD, MPH; Bridget O’Brien, PhD; Hyunjee Kim, PhD; Stuart Gilman, MD; Nancy Harada, PhD, PT; Lillian Gelberg, MD, MSPH; Sarah Shull, PhD; Meike Niederhausen, PhD; Samuel King, MS, MDiv; Elizabeth Hulen, MA; Mamta K. Singh, MD, MS; Anaïs Tuepker, PhD, MPH
Twenty-seven years ago, the Institute of Medicine launched a primary care consensus study that, at the time, seemed highly aligned with the country’s appetite for health reform and managed care.
Primary Care: America’s Health in a New Era produced a primary care definition still used around the world; however, the report’s recommendations received no traction in the US. Similarly, a 2012 Institute of Medicine report on the integration of primary care and public health largely went unheeded.
Anthony DeCarlo / Yale School of Medicine
When Amanda, 28, found out that she was pregnant with her second child, she was in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and struggling with opioid use disorder.
“I was pretty heavy into my drug use,” said Amanda, whose last name is being withheld due to patient confidentiality. “I had given up hope and was figuring out a way to use drugs and get away with the consequences. But it doesn’t work like that.”
Now, however, Amanda is feeling “really good.” That’s because she is in a clinical trial for pregnant women run by the Yale School of Medicine, through which she receives medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for her opioid use disorder (OUD). Amanda’s OB-GYN is among a group of physicians at 12 clinics in Connecticut and Massachusetts who are training with Yale to offer OB-GYN care and treatment for substance use disorder under one roof to pregnant patients.