Dr. Wenners Ballard III, Guest Speaker at Evening Grand Rounds

Wenners Ballard III, MD

Grand rounds help physicians and other healthcare professionals keep up-to-date in evolving topics.

On November 13, fellow hospitalist, Dr. Wenners Ballard III, was the invited guest speaker for Evening Grand Rounds. His presentation titled, “The Opioid Effect: The Present and Future”, discussed present opioid options and addressed future strategies to fight the opioid crisis.

“In October 2017, the opioid epidemic became a nationwide public health emergency.

A 5 point plan was outlined by HHS:

1. Better prevention

2. Better data

3. Better pain management

4. Better availability of reversal agents

5. Better research on pain and addiction

In September 2018, HHS awarded over $1 billion to combat the opioid crisis.” *

Dr. Ballard summarized his presentation by focusing on future endeavors such as improved overdose reversal agents, compounds that target nonopioid pain pathways, and effective nonaddictive interventions for chronic pain.

*Healthcare information provided by Dr. Ballard’s PowerPoint presentation