My research asks how we can treat pain effectively while reducing the harms that can come from opioids. It follows the full arc of a patient’s experience, from acute pain after surgery or injury to chronic pain that lasts months or years, and the prescribing and policy decisions that shape both.
Opioids and surgery
A large part of my work looks at what happens when patients receive opioids around the time of surgery. Using statewide data that link surgical records to prescription information, my colleagues and I have studied how much medication patients actually use after an operation, how opioid use before surgery affects recovery, and when short-term prescribing turns into new, lasting opioid use. The aim is practical: prescribing that controls pain without leaving patients dependent on medication they never needed.
Acute and chronic pain
I study how pain is measured and managed across different settings, including how to compare pain scores collected in different ways and how to improve the quality of pain care after surgery. Measuring pain accurately is the first step toward treating it well.
Overdose prevention and policy
As co-director of the Overdose Prevention Engagement Network (OPEN), I work on system-level approaches to prevent overdoses, identify substance use before surgery, and improve care for people with opioid use disorder. This connects directly to policy: I have contributed to national efforts on the opioid crisis and to the federal evaluation of pain and anesthetic medications.
A selection of my peer-reviewed work is on the publications page. A complete and current list is available through PubMed, Google Scholar, and ORCID.