We strive to improve health outcomes and save lives by bringing together researchers and technologists to find innovative and effective solutions to address large-scale public health challenges.
The U.S. is facing many health problems. With advancement in treatment and cures taking 80% of the global health budget, and prevention only receiving 20%, a crisis has emerged. Preventable diseases and injuries are now costing governments and communities more than just money – they are taking lives too early and too often. The Preventum Initiative will focus on public health challenges as it moves forward; however, for the foreseeable future we will focus on America’s biggest health challenge…the opioid crisis.
- In 2015, 11.8 million Americans aged 12 years and older reported misusing opioids: 11.5 million misused prescription pain relievers and 948,000 used heroin.
- The amount of opioids prescribed in the U.S. in 2015 was enough for every American to be medicated around the clock for three weeks!
- More than 1000 people per day are treated in emergency departments for misusing opioids
- 80% of people who use heroin first misused prescription opioids
- Every 25 minutes a baby is born addicted to opioids in the U.S.
- The CDC estimates that the total “economic burden” of prescription opioid misuse alone in the U.S. is more than $78 billion a year.
Preventum, the digital health company, and the Preventum Initiative share a unique partnership. Born out of the founders’ vision, these two entities have come together to solve complex health problems. Preventum is providing an exclusive licence of its patent-pending technology platform to the Preventum Initiative to advance the cause of research in prevention and treatment strategies.
At the Preventum Initiative, we recognize that as a community we cannot spend our way out of preventable problems like the opioid epidemic by just providing funding for treatment. Effective evidence-based prevention strategies also need to be provided to the community. At the Preventum Initiative we have developed four key areas of focus that provide both prevention and addiction solutions.
Adult Prevention
Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S. and opioid addiction is driving this epidemic. The Preventum Initiative is currently researching and developing targeted campaigns for adult opioid use. Deployed on Preventum’s digital public health platform, these campaigns will focus on safe use, diversion, safe storage and safe disposal for acute opioid users.
Adolescent and Youth Prevention
Since 2014, the nonmedical use of prescription-type opioids among youth and adolescents has increase significantly, and so too have teen drug overdose deaths. The CDC reports that in 2015, 65% of drug overdose deaths among 15 to 19-years olds were from prescription painkillers (opioids), and 80% were accidental overdoses. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, close to half of young people who have injected heroin said they had abused prescription painkillers before they started using heroin. The Preventum Initiative is working with Preventum and other partners to develop effective, tailored education campaigns aimed at youth and adolescents.
You will find more statistics at Statista
Prevention for Doctors
A recent survey by the National Safety Council showed 99% of physicians exceed the CDC recommended 3-day opioid prescription dosage limit, 25% writing prescriptions for a full month and consequently overprescribe these types of medications. The Preventum Initiative is conducting research and developing campaigns that will allow hospitals, insurance companies, and governments to get better “buy-in” from physicians to change their behaviour around the number and dosage of opioid prescriptions.
Treatment Engagement
Opioid addicts have a relapse rate between 40%-60%. The Preventum Initiative and its team of behavioural scientists are working to develop new ways to engage addicts in their treatment protocol. Strategies based on contingency management use machine learning and gamification to keep addicts attending and engaged in their treatment.
Donations are welcome
Over the past 20 years people across the U.S. have watched the rapidly escalating opioid crisis destroy families and entire communities. Your gift can help us change this.
OPIOID DEATHS – HOW IS YOUR STATE AFFECTED?
Data from 12-month period ending June 2017 Source: CDC, 2017
THE U.S. MAKES UP 4.3% OF THE WORLD’S POPULATION, YET IT CONSUMES 81% OF THE WORLD SUPPLY OF OXYCODONE (OXYCONTIN)
Families and communities across the US are coping with the health, economic and emotional effects of the opioid epidemic. A donation to the Preventum Initiative funds world-class research to prevent opioid drug overdoses, babies born addicted to opioids, children ending up orphaned or in foster care due to parents addicted to opioids, and teen opioid overdose rates. Your gift will fund research into the prevention of complex health challenges, such as injuries, diabetes, obesity, asthma, COPD, heart disease. Donate now.
Letter From The Founders
A couple of years ago, the three of us set out to do something totally different, to build the world’s first digital public health platform, In October 2017, we launched Preventum which brought together world-best technology and evidence-based research to address major public health needs such as injuries, obesity, and the opioid crisis. The Preventum Initiative, a standalone non-profit, is the culmination of our original vision...Read more.
The Preventum Initiative will bring together the world’s best researchers in injury prevention, chronic disease management, behavioural science, addiction and pain management, artificial intelligence and gamification to provide both prevention and treatment strategies using innovative technology solutions.
As the founding Executive Director of the Preventum Initiative, Jacquii will move from her role as Director of Research for Preventum and oversee the building of the Initiative’s team, research and programs. Each year, Preventum will donate a portion of its profits to support the work of the Preventum Initiative. Other financial support will come through grants and your generous donations.
Thank you for being a part of our vision of creating a better world through research and innovation!
Jacquii, Lyndon and Steve
The Board
As co-chairs of the Preventum Initiative Board, Steve and Lyndon will work with Jacquii to recruit and build a non-profit board to guide the Preventum Initiative and provide oversight as it fulfils its vision and mission.
OUR TEAM
Jacqueline Burgess
Executive DirectorJacquii has a diverse background that includes qualifications in nursing, marketing, journalism, and public health. After repeatedly treating preventable diseases and injuries as a nurse...Read more.
, she changed her career 15 years ago to focus instead on disease and injury prevention, and health promotion. Jacquii created To Good Health, a health magazine published in Australia and the US, aimed at disseminating the latest evidence-based research in a simplified and succinct format for the general public. She was also the editor-in-chief of Sixty Second Parent Magazine in the US and Australia.
Jacquii’s post-graduate degree in public health focused on smoking cessation in teenage girls. In 2017, Jacquii completed her PhD in childhood injury prevention at the University of Queensland, Australia. In part, this research investigated the use of smartphone applications and gamification techniques to engage and educate parents about childhood burn prevention and correct burn first aid. Her primary research has now been adopted by the Australian government and rolled out as a national burns prevention campaign – Cool Runnings – the world’s first large-scale public health information campaign on a mobile device. Jacquii is widely published and has presented her research on injury prevention internationally. Jacquii is passionate about combining technology and communication with evidence-based research to deliver effective public health solutions.
Dr. Olson Huff, MD, DoSc, FAAP
Medical AdvisorOlson Huff is a pediatrician, child advocate, founder of the Olson Huff Center for Child Development and the Founding Medical Director of Mission Children’s Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina...Read more.
He was instrumental in the development of health care resources, such as the “toothbus”, that provides care for underserved children in rural western North Carolina.
He is a past president of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and is past chair of the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Partnership for Children as well as the past chair of the Committee on Federal Government Affairs of the AAP.
He is a veteran of the USAF, a graduate of the University of Kentucky ,received his medical degree from the University of Louisville, internship at Wilford Hall USAF Hospital, pediatric residency at Charlotte Memorial Hospital and fellowship in Child Development at UNC at Chapel Hill.
He is an elder in the Presbyterian Church, a jogger and an avid reader of U.S. History.
He and his wife of 53 years, Marylyn, live in Black Mountain, NC, and have three sons and four growing grandchildren.
Dr. Leah Devlin, DDS, MPH
Public Health AdvisorDr. Devlin has more than 30 years in public health practice in North Carolina including 10 years as the Wake County Health Director and 10 years as the State Health Director...Read more.
for North Carolina. She is a board member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control Foundation, the UNC Board of Visitors, the Gillings School of Global Public Health Advisory Council, Trustee of Campbell University, NC Medical Society Foundation Board, NC Foundation for Advanced Health Programs and other statewide boards. In addition, she serves as a Consultant for Research Triangle Institute, International.
These are the facts of the opioid epidemic
10
One American dies every 10 minutes from an opioid-related overdose
25
Every 25 minutes a baby is born addicted to opioids in the U.S.
80
$80 billion per year, cost of opioid abuse to U.S. economy
