Martin to participate in NIOSH forum addressing worker opioid use disorders

This month, Professor Chris Martin, MD, MSc, will represent WVU and the School of Public Health at a nationwide forum to address research gaps related to the use of opioids after workplace injury and exposures. The invitation-only meeting, hosted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), will bring together stakeholders from workers’ compensation (WC), public health, government and academia to discuss specific ways to use WC and other data to prevent and treat opioid use disorders among workers.

Speakers and panelists will highlight the comprehensive steps that NIOSH is taking to assist and protect workers, employers and first responders on the front line facing the opioid use disorder and overdose crisis; current published uses of WC opioids data and the vital role this data can play in the initial identification and response to the opioids use disorder crisis; and the WC data gaps that still exist.

Attendees will work in break-out groups to identify ways to use existing data to address the research gaps and generate new research ideas.

Martin is currently collaborating with NIOSH researchers to investigate the role of work-related disability on deaths from opioid overdoses. He is a professor and residency director in the School of Public Health's Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences department. He is also a professor in the WVU School of Medicine and director of the WVU Health Sciences Center's Global Engagement Office.

The forum will be held July 10 in the NIOSH Hamilton Laboratory in Cincinnati, Ohio.