Jennifer Sharpe Potter, PhD, MPH, wants UT Health San Antonio’s Be Well Institute on Substance Use and Related Disorders to be the best substance use disorder institute in the world.
"And we're going to do that by developing the very best treatments," she said. "We're going to do that by being a model and a beacon for stigma free, education and service delivery, because every life is worth saving."
Be Well Texas is already revolutionizing how substance use disorder is treated in Texas. "The first thing it's going to sound different is it's outpatient. And it also is different because it's virtual," she said.
This makes services accessible to more people in every corner of the state.
"For something that can be so stigmatizing, the privacy and the safety that's afforded to you when you're doing a telehealth visit or a video visit is actually lowering the barrier to entry into treatment," she said.
Potter wants the institute to advance our understanding of substance use disorders and how to best treat them. For example, they’re testing an app they hope will improve outcomes for those in treatment for opioid use disorder.
"We use science to anchor, and then we act practically and locally, and we try to understand people's struggles and lower the barriers for them to get the help they need," she said. "Because no one should die alone from a preventable condition. And this is preventable."
Science & Medicine is a collaboration between TPR and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio that explores how scientific discovery in San Antonio advances the way medicine is practiced everywhere.
