News Archive
Professor Terry Joins National COVID-19 Briefing
04/06/2020
The global COVID-19 pandemic is happening at the same time as another public health emergency: the drug-related overdose epidemic in the United States.
The COVID-19 crisis is particularly difficult for people with substance abuse disorder (SUD), for many reasons, including the legal and regulatory environment governing the prescription therapies, such as methadone and buprenorphine, according to IU McKinney Professor Nicolas Terry.
Professor Terry joined Northeastern University School of Law Professor Leo Beletsky and Deborah Reid, Senior Health Policy Attorney at the Legal Action Center, a national nonprofit legal and advocacy organization, to discuss the coronavirus pandemic and substance abuse disorder on April 9 for a briefing, “Protecting SUD Populations.”
“People with SUD are in worse shape than many of the rest of us, getting drugs supplied to them is so important,” Professor Terry said, during the briefing.
But Professor Terry also sees the opportunity to “recalibrate” ways of treating Americans with SUD that may last beyond the current crisis. For example, As of March 17, 2020, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) now permits patients to be initiated on buprenorphine through a telemedicine visit without an in-person exam. This is a departure from the previously stringent requirements that patients be physically located at a DEA-registered facility or in the physical presence of a DEA-registered provider.
“We’re seeing some general liberalization,” Professor Terry observed.
The live briefings on the biggest legal issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic are sponsored by the Public Health Law Watch initiative, which identifies potential legislative and regulatory changes that have the potential to impact public health.
Professor Terry is the Hall Render Professor of Law at IU McKinney School of Law, where he serves as the Executive Director of the Hall Center for Law and Health and teaches various healthcare and health policy courses. His recent scholarship has dealt with health privacy, mobile health, the Internet of Things, Big Data, AI, and the opioid overdose epidemic.
Professor Terry serves on Indiana University’s Grand Challenges Scientific Leadership Team, working on the addictions crisis. In that capacity he recently testified on opioids policy before the Senate Committee on Aging. He is one of the permanent bloggers at Harvard Law School’s Bill of Health. He regularly hosts the “The Week in Health Law” podcast at TWIHL.com, and he is @nicolasterry on twitter.
