Mayo Clinic's response to the opioid crisis
Welcome to the Rochester Rundown, a new podcast from Med City Beat featuring in-depth interviews, news briefs, and our picks of the best upcoming events in the area.
Dr. Halena Gazelka
For our inaugural episode, editor Sean Baker joins reporter Isaac Jahns for a conversation on how Mayo Clinic is responding to the nationwide opioid crisis.
Sean’s reporting on the subject includes an interview with Dr. Halena Gazelka, chair of the Mayo Clinic Enterprise Opioid Stewardship Program. Dr. Gazelka says new guidelines are helping curb the number of opioids being prescribed at Mayo — in some cases by over 50 percent. By her estimation, that means about 1 million fewer pills are making their way to the streets of Rochester each year. That represents a significant step forward, considering that in 2017, the most recent year in which government statistics are available, 422 Minnesotans lost their lives due to an opioid overdose.
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