“The Bucksbaum-Siegler Institute for Clinical Excellence has named Stefan G. Kertesz, MD, MSc as the recipient of the 2025 Bucksbaum-Siegler Clinical Excellence Award, recognizing his extraordinary commitment to clinical excellence and the doctor-patient relationship.”
Read more here.
A note from Principal Investigator, Dr. Stefan Kertesz:
This newsletter is particularly special so I hope you will give it a read and forward/share it far and wide. I have posted a short piece about Cy, who leads our UAB-affiliated recruitment team, along with our shared commitment to continuing recruitment for the CSI:OPIOIDs study, despite the barriers. As I have worked with Cy, I have come to admire her more deeply.
There is a new website to donate to support the university-affiliated research team. https://go.uab.edu/csisupport
Please enjoy our newsletter, and share it.
Stefan Kertesz, MD, MSc
The CSI:OPIOIDs lead investigator, Dr. Stefan Kertesz released a podcast episode that asks how prescription drug monitoring programs affect the physician-patient relationship. The episode features an interview with Professor Liz Chiarello (Saint Louis University) about her 2024 book “Policing Patients: Treatment and Surveillance on the Frontlines of the Opioid Crisis”.
The podcast series, “On Becoming a Healer” is available on every podcast streaming service, including Youtube at this link.
Our research team continues its work to learn how best to prevent suicides of Veterans and non-Veterans with pain. People have asked how they can support the work. We answer that with the story of “Cy”, an amazing recruitment leader, in our latest newsletter from the CSI:OPIOIDs study team.
For people who are new to us, we interview people who have lost someone with pain to suicide after medication changes, to learn and then teach the lessons required to prevent the next tragedy. There is compensation for folks we interview. You may enter the eligibility survey here.
To do the work, we draw on the expertise of our university partners, through 2 contracts. Due to important recent events, both contracts are selected for termination.
There are ways to support the recruitment team, led by the amazing Cy. Donations received will not go to our VA team, just to Cy’s team at University of Alabama at Birmingham. Read about it here (and please share)
Please write to us at csiopioids@uabmc.edu with any questions or if you wish to be added to our Newsletter mailing list.
Stefan Kertesz, a physician and addiction expert, says overaggressive cutbacks can harm some chronic pain patients. Read the full interview here
Here’s a very brief video update about the CSI:OPIOIDs study, which aims to understand suicides occurring in chronic pain. A few important points:
For people in crisis, we want to make people aware of the resources we know about:
Please join us this Tuesday 9/24/24 12 noon EDT at the TAPS Institute for Hope and Healing Webinar: “Suicide Loss Survivor Experiences: Contributing to Suicide Prevention Opportunities”.
Our CSI-OPIOIDs team is honored to co-present with “Operation Deep Dive” from America’s Warrior Partnership on how our research projects parter with suicide loss survivors to advance suicide prevention.
We are both presenting through the good will of an amazing organization: Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS) Institute for Hope and Healing, a leader in training and education for bereavement professionals, bereaved individuals, and grieving military, veteran and civilian families.
It’s public. Register to join online here!
“For a better way of saying it, I give a sh*t. Because it’s about helping people”
Hello Mark, tell us about yourself!
I am Mark Flower. I work with the CSI:OPIOIDs study as an advisor who represents Veterans and people with addiction history.
What is your professional background or personal connection to this work. Why are you interested in this study?
I am a Veteran in recovery. I’ve unfortunately lost too many people I know to the journey of addiction and related issues. Also, suicide is a big part of it. I’ve known too many people in my life who have died by suicide and it shouldn’t have to be that way. Whenever I can work on a project to try to reduce that it’s always good.
What difference do you hope this work will make to others?
I’m hoping that the work we are doing will allow for more awareness in the community. Finding an alternative to the opioids might be very important. My hope is, out of this project, that we can instill that people will have to help with that process. And also, for family members… it’s a thing, that the more they are aware of it the more they can probably become helpful in the process of possibly preventing a suicide.
What has been the most interesting/surprising/meaningful thing about doing this work, so far?
For me, the cool thing was, and I guess surprising, is the conundrum of how we used to deal with pain through opioids. And it has finally come to a point where opioids aren’t necessarily the best way to deal with pain, even though in some cases it may be necessary. It’s not surprising that it was a problem, but that we are finally looking at that.
What ideas do you have that might help us think about suicide and how to prevent it? Is there a special resource or place to learn more about these ideas?
To me personally, I think a more whole-health approach to the suicide prevention is actually a good thing. Some of the folks that I have lost, it wasn’t really the mental health issue that triggered something. IT was more of an outside thing that triggered it. Like say they are in a financial crisis all of a sudden. Or say a divorce is starting to go down. And to me that’s part of the whole health part. And once we are in crisis, that also starts triggering the mental health side of that journey.
What do you think we need to know about Veterans and suicide risk?
Well I’m a Veteran and I want to share three things.
One is I’m trained to fix things, whatever that is, whatever the mission may be.
Two is I’m trained to be stubborn.
Three is I’m trained to think about everybody else and not myself. And in some ways that gets in the way of taking care of myself.
What do you think people in our society might need to learn at this time about pain and its care?
That’s a complicated question for me, because pain is real even if it may not be. When we kind of get used to the pain, it never really goes away, kind of like that phantom pain where it’s always hurting. I’m not saying to minimize that, but pain is still real. And if I was going to instill something in folks, pain is real in the individual. And even though opioids, in specific may be very appropriate, but as a solution it hurts people.
For a better way of saying it, I give a sh*t. That’s kind of why I do what I do. Because it’s really about helping people.
Suicide is public health challenge that affects Veterans, active members of the armed forces, and their families. Our team has now launched its first public advertising with the well-regarded Military Times family of publications. We are proud to share our message and our commitment to suicide prevention through a news service used by many who are actively serving the U.S. armed forces, others in retirement, and military families.
Our VA research study looks at one key context for suicide: pain with opioid reduction. It’s important to remember that suicide is a complex event, without a single cause. For people who are in crisis, please know that the phone number 988 will reach the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, as will texts to 838255, and chat with 988lifeline.org/chat
Hello Allyson, tell us about yourself!
I am Allyson Varley. I work with the CSI:OPIOIDs study as co-investigator, qualitative interviewer and analyst.
What is your professional background or personal connection to this work. Why are you interested in this study?
I joined Dr. Kertesz’s lab to work on this study, specifically. I have always had an interest in chronic pain and opioid prescribing with a focus on implementation science. This was a unique way to study de-implementation or deprescribing of opioids from the patient perspective.
What has been the most interesting/surprising/meaningful thing about doing this work, so far?
Conducting psychological autopsy interviews is both challenging and rewarding. Many interviewees have their own lived experience with pain and share related insights with us. I have learned so much from our participants and am super grateful for their willingness to share their stories and the stories of their loved ones they lost.
What do you think people in our society might need to learn at this time about pain and its care?
One size does not fit all. For treatments, guidelines, implementation strategies, etc. Pain is a very complex health issue, and systems-level interventions must take this into consideration.
