
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Dr. Jennifer Walthall, secretary of the Indiana Family & Social Services Administration, will keynote “The Healthcare Industry in Pain Management and Addressing the Opioid Crisis,” a conference being presented Feb. 15 by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business.
Walthall will kick off the conference, the latest event in the Indiana Life Sciences Collaboration Conference Series, organized by Kelley’s Center for the Business of Life Sciences. It will take place at Cook Medical headquarters, 750 Daniels Way in Bloomington. The event will begin at 9 a.m. and wrap up at 2:45 p.m.
An IU study released last year found that opioid misuse costs Indiana over $4 billion annually, or $11 million daily. The conference will focus on how the healthcare industry can play a key role in combating this crisis and find alternative treatments for dealing with pain other than opioids.
Representatives from providers, pharmaceuticals and medical device companies will provide an overview and an update on a wide range of initiatives and current efforts.
“While other conferences have focused on the scope and causes of the opioid crisis, we hope to contribute to the effort to find solutions for what is perhaps Indiana’s biggest public health crisis,” said George Telthorst, director of the Center for the Business of Life Sciences. “This crisis emerged because of many factors – some well-intended and others unintended – but the healthcare industry has accumulated much knowledge that hopefully can effectively fight this challenge.” (more…)