Tuesday, June 7, 2022

Resolution

America's overdose crisis is the result of doctors over‐treating patients with opioids.

For the affirmative:

Adriane Fugh-Berman, MD is a Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology with a joint appointment in the Department of Family Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center. Dr. Fugh-Berman codirects the M.S. program in Health and the Public Interest. She also directs PharmedOut, a GUMC research and education project that promotes rational prescribing, exposes the effect of pharmaceutical marketing on prescribing practices and has had a profound impact on prescribers’ perceptions of the adverse consequences of industry marketing. Dr. Fugh-Berman has authored many key articles in peer-reviewed literature on the area of industry influence on medicine, including the first studies in the medical literature about how the pharmaceutical industry influences surgeons, pharmacists, basic scientists, and individual patients.

For the negative:

Jeffrey A. Singer is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He is principal and founder of Valley Surgical Clinics, Ltd., Arizona’s largest and oldest group private surgical practice. He was a regular contributor to Arizona Medicine, the journal of the Arizona Medical Association from 1994-2016. He served on the Advisory Board Council of the Center for Political Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University (2014-2018) and is an adjunct instructor in the Program on Political History and Leadership at ASU. He writes and speaks extensively on regional and national public policy, with a focus on health care policy and the harmful effects of drug prohibition. His work has appeared in peer-reviewed scientific medical journals as well as major national and regional journals and periodicals. He received a B.A. from Brooklyn College, an M.D. from New York Medical College, and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.