Behind the Evidence

Interviews with four authors of award-winning abstracts at AMERSA 2025

Behind the Evidence is the addiction medicine podcast of the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center [https://www.bmc.org/addiction], and a project of the Center’s free bimonthly newsletter Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Health: Current Evidence [http://www.aodhealth.org] (AODH). This episode features interviews with four authors of award-winning abstracts at the AMERSA 2025 annual conference. Learn more and read the abstracts on the conference website. [https://amersa.org/education/amersa-conference-resources/] (Note: BTE is not affiliated with AMERSA) 1) “This Is a Great Idea.” Harm Reduction Vending Machines in Veterans Supportive Housing. - Tessa Lynne Rife-Pennington, PharmD, BCGP, et al. 2) Lived Experience Advisory Panel: A Consultative Service to Improve Research Equity and Relevance for Black People with Substance Use Disorders. - Avik Chatterjee, MD, MPH, et al. 3) Meeting People Where They Are: Implementing a Mail-Based Syringe Service Program. - Shelby Arena, et al. 4) Comparing the Effectiveness of Opioid Continuation, Tapering, and Buprenorphine Rotation on Mortality in a Cohort at Higher Risk of Prescription Opioid Misuse. - Pooja Lagisetty, MD, MSc, et al. Hosts: Honora L. Englander, MD and Marc R. Larochelle, MD Production: Raquel Silveira, MBA Editing: Casy Calver, PhD Music and cover art: Mary Tomanovich, MA Miriam Komaromy, MD is the Executive Director of the Grayken Center for Addiction, and co-Editor-in-Chief of AODH, together with David Fiellin, MD Learn more about AODH and subscribe for free at www.aodhealth.org [http://www.aodhealth.org] “Behind the Evidence” is supported by the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center. It is intended for educational purposes only, and should not be considered medical advice. The views expressed here are our own, and do not necessarily reflect those of our employers or the authors of the articles we review. All patient information has been modified to protect their identities.

"Behind the Masthead" special series: a conversation with Lynda Kellam, PhD

The Grayken Center for Addiction [https://www.bmc.org/addiction] at Boston Medical Center’s Behind the Evidence podcast is pleased to host "Behind the Masthead," a special series of episodes featuring conversations with addiction journal editors and other scholars on navigating current threats to addiction science and academic freedom. In this episode, guest host Casy Calver, PhD speaks with Lynda Kellam, PhD, Snyder-Granader Director of Research Data & Digital Scholarship at the University of Pennsylvania, and one of the founding members of the Data Rescue Project [https://www.datarescueproject.org/]. This interview was recorded 23 October 2025. Links: Data Rescue Project [https://www.datarescueproject.org/] (DRP); DRP Resources page [https://www.datarescueproject.org/resources/]; IASSIST [https://iassistdata.org/]; RDAP [https://rdapassociation.org/]; Data Curation Network [https://datacuration.network/]; BRFSS [https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/index.html]; Internet Archive [https://archive.org/]; “The Forgotten Egg: The Importance of Public Federal Data in the United States [https://www.datarescueproject.org/forgotten-egg/]” (DRP); The Data Index [https://dataindex.us/]; ICPSR [https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/sites/icpsr/home]; Safeguarding Research and Culture [https://safeguar.de/]; “What you can do for restricted access data [https://www.datarescueproject.org/restricted-access-data/]” (DRP); EDGI [https://envirodatagov.org/]; America’s Essential Data [https://essentialdata.us/]; Save Our Signs [https://www.datarescueproject.org/save-our-signs/] (DRP). Behind the Evidence is the addiction medicine podcast of the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center [https://www.bmc.org/addiction], and a project of the Center’s free bimonthly newsletter Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Health: Current Evidence [https://www.bu.edu/aodhealth/] (AODH). “Behind the Masthead,” is guest-hosted by Casy Calver, PhD. Behind the Evidence hosts: Honora L. Englander, MD and Marc R. Larochelle, MD Production: Raquel Silveira, MBA Editing: Casy Calver, PhD Music and cover art: Mary Tomanovich, MA Miriam Komaromy, MD is the Executive Director of the Grayken Center for Addiction, and co-Editor-in-Chief of AODH, together with David Fiellin, MD “Behind the Evidence” is supported by the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center. It is intended for educational purposes only, and should not be considered medical advice. The views expressed here are our own, and do not necessarily reflect those of our employers or the authors of the articles we review.

"Behind the Masthead" special series: a conversation with Bryon Adinoff, MD

The Grayken Center for Addiction [https://www.bmc.org/addiction] at Boston Medical Center’s Behind the Evidence podcast is pleased to host "Behind the Masthead," a special series of episodes featuring conversations with addiction journal editors and other scholars on navigating current threats to addiction science and academic freedom. In this third episode of the “Behind the Masthead” series, guest host Casy Calver, PhD speaks with Bryon Adinoff, MD, president of Doctors for Drug Policy Reform [https://www.d4dpr.org/] and editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse [https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/iada20], which recently republished the editorial, “A clarion call to the addiction science community [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00952990.2025.2555137].” Bryon is also past-president of the International Society of Addiction Journal Editors [https://www.isaje.net/] (ISAJE). Behind the Evidence is the addiction medicine podcast of the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center [https://www.bmc.org/addiction], and a project of the Center’s free bimonthly newsletter Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Health: Current Evidence [https://www.bu.edu/aodhealth/] (AODH). This special series, “Behind the Masthead,” is guest-hosted by Casy Calver, PhD. This interview was recorded 24 September 2025. Behind the Evidence hosts: Honora L. Englander, MD and Marc R. Larochelle, MD Production: Raquel Silveira, MBA Editing: Casy Calver, PhD Music and cover art: Mary Tomanovich, MA Miriam Komaromy, MD is the Executive Director of the Grayken Center for Addiction, and co-Editor-in-Chief of AODH, together with David Fiellin, MD Learn more about AODH and subscribe for free [https://www.bu.edu/aodhealth/]. “Behind the Evidence” is supported by the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center. It is intended for educational purposes only, and should not be considered medical advice. The views expressed here are our own, and do not necessarily reflect those of our employers or the authors of the articles we review. All patient information has been modified to protect their identities.

An interview with J. Cedric Woods, PhD on trends in fatal opioid-related overdose in American Indian and Alaska Native communities

“Behind the Evidence [https://www.bu.edu/aodhealth/podcast/]” is the addiction medicine podcast of the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center [https://www.bmc.org/addiction], and a project of the Center’s free bimonthly newsletter Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Health: Current Evidence [https://www.bu.edu/aodhealth/] (AODH). This episode was recorded 19 May 2025 and features an interview with J. Cedric Woods, PhD [https://www.umb.edu/inenas/institute-staff/] on his article, “Trends in Fatal Opioid-Related Overdose in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities, 1999-2021” published in The American Journal of Preventative Medicine. Click here [https://www.bu.edu/aodhealth/2025/10/30/rising-opioid-related-overdose-mortality-rates-in-the-american-indian-and-alaska-native-communities-1999-2021/] to read AODH’s summary of this article. Hosts: Honora L. Englander, MD and Marc R. Larochelle, MD Production: Raquel Silveira, MBA Editing: Casy Calver, PhD Music and cover art: Mary Tomanovich, MA Miriam Komaromy, MD is the Executive Director of the Grayken Center for Addiction, and co-Editor-in-Chief of AODH, together with David Fiellin, MD Learn more about AODH and subscribe for free at www.aodhealth.org “Behind the Evidence” is supported by the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center. It is intended for educational purposes only, and should not be considered medical advice. The views expressed here are our own, and do not necessarily reflect those of our employers or the authors of the articles we review. All patient information has been modified to protect their identities.

"Behind the Masthead" special series: a conversation with Tom Babor, PhD

The Grayken Center for Addiction [https://www.bmc.org/addiction] at Boston Medical Center’s Behind the Evidence podcast is pleased to host "Behind the Masthead," a special series of episodes featuring conversations with addiction journal editors and other scholars on navigating current threats to addiction science and academic freedom. In this second episode of the “Behind the Masthead” series, guest host Casy Calver, PhD speaks with Tom Babor, PhD, an Emeritus Professor at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, and the former Editor of Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs [https://www.jsad.com/]. Dr Babor has been an outspoken advocate for the preservation of scientific freedom through the Addiction Science Defense Network [https://www.npscoalition.org/projects/addiction-science-defense-network], and he is the lead author of the editorial, “A clarion call to the addiction science community: It's time to resist the anti-scientific policies of the US Trump administration [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/14550725251325970],” which has been re-published in a number of addiction journals. He is also a co-author of the Sex and Gender Equity in Research [https://researchintegrityjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41073-016-0007-6] (SAGER) guidelines, and a past-president of the International Society of Addiction Journal Editors [https://www.isaje.net/] (ISAJE). This interview was recorded 25 September 2025. Behind the Evidence is the addiction medicine podcast of the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center [https://www.bmc.org/addiction], and a project of the Center’s free bimonthly newsletter Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Health: Current Evidence [http://www.aodhealth.org] (AODH). This series, “Behind the Masthead,” is guest-hosted by Casy Calver, PhD. Behind the Evidence hosts: Honora L. Englander, MD and Marc R. Larochelle, MD Production: Raquel Silveira, MBA Editing: Casy Calver, PhD Music and cover art: Mary Tomanovich, MA Miriam Komaromy, MD is the Executive Director of the Grayken Center for Addiction, and co-Editor-in-Chief of AODH, together with David Fiellin, MD Learn more about AODH and subscribe for free at www.aodhealth.org [http://www.aodhealth.org] “Behind the Evidence” is supported by the Grayken Center for Addiction at Boston Medical Center. It is intended for educational purposes only, and should not be considered medical advice. The views expressed here are our own, and do not necessarily reflect those of our employers or the authors of the articles we review. All patient information has been modified to protect their identities.