In this episode, Dr Elle Wadsworth talks to Dr Albert Burgess-Hull, the Scientific Director of SUDx and Head Data Scientist at MATClinics, US. The interview covers a short report examining treatment retention in opioid use disorder comparing subcutaneous injectable versus sublingual buprenorphine. 

·      What is buprenorphine and what it is used for? [01:00]

·      The benefits and drawbacks of sublingual versus subcutaneous injectable buprenorphine [01:38]

·      An overview of the study [04:41]

·      Statistically matching sublingual buprenorphine patients with subcutaneous injectable buprenorphine patients [06:05]

·      The main findings of the study [08:34]

·      The contrast of Albert’s findings with findings in previous literature [10:03]

·      The implications of the findings for clinicians [12:28]

·      The take home messages of the study [14:03]

About Elle Wadsworth: Elle is an academic fellow with the Society for the Study of Addiction. She is based at the University of Bath with the Addiction and Mental Health Group and her research interests include drug policy, cannabis legalisation, and public health. Elle is also a senior analyst at RAND Europe, working on projects focusing on national and international drug policies.

About Albert Burgess-Hull: Albert is an addiction scientist and machine-learning researcher, and is currently the Scientific Director of SUDx and Head Data Scientist at MATClinics. His research focuses on the development and deployment of digital health frameworks to improve medical decision-making, operational efficiency, and the delivery of substance use disorder treatments. Dr Burgess-Hull received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed postdoctoral fellowship training at the National Institute on Drug Abuse IRP at the National Institutes of Health.

Declarations of interest: Dr Burgess-Hull is employed by MATClinics Services LLC. MATClinics are clinics serving outpatient treatment for opioid, alcohol and stimulant use.

Original article: A comparative study of treatment retention in opioid use disorder: Subcutaneous injectable versus sublingual buprenorphine https://doi.org/10.1111/add.70105

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