Prior studies have shown veterans are particularly at risk of dying by opioid overdose and the possibility of that occurring has been rising steadily over the past two decades. From 2010-2019, there was a 61.2% increase in risk of overdose death among male veterans. Interestingly, this increased risk was not observed among female veterans, despite rates of opioid use disorder (OUD) rising more quickly among women than men in the general population. Racial disparities in opioid overdose deaths are also prominent with a significant increase in death due to opioids among all racial and ethnic minority veterans, except American Indian or Alaskan Native veterans.

 

Given increases in opioid overdose rates and policy changes expanding access to medications for OUD during the COVID-19 pandemic, BU and VA researchers sought to understand how the opioid overdose epidemic impacted veterans with opioid use disorder. In their new study, they found female veterans and veterans from racial and ethnic minority groups were at higher risk of dying from an opioid overdose than other veterans.

Lives could be saved and treatment times cut, with data-driven decision-making, according to the book, written by an international team. 

About The Study: In this cohort study of opioid-related index health care events, race and ethnicity–based and insurance-based disparities in access to medications for opioid use disorder persisted despite efforts to expand treatment availability. These findings underscore the need for targeted interventions, including culturally tailored care, expanded access points, and policy reforms to address structural barriers and reduce inequities contributing to the overdose crisis. 

Murtuza Jadliwala, associate professor in computer science and core member of the MATRIX UTSA AI Consortium for Human Well-Being at the Univeristy of Texas at San Antonio, worked alongside Hanna Foerster from University of Cambridge and Sasha Behrouzi, Phillip Rieger and Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi from the Technical University of Darmstadt to show the insufficiency of existing copyright protection tools and the need for more robust approach.The team developed LightShed, a powerful new method capable of bypassing these protections. 

How do we critically engage archives of colonial, historical, political, and racial violence? What modes of counter investigation might be employed? Researchers from Forensic Architecture (London), the project “The Art of Counter-Investigation” (Institute for Social Research, Frankfurt), and the fields of media and film studies will discuss the challenges of archival investigation in the contexts of colonial and political violence. Questions include forensic methods of investigation and counter investigation, aesthetic practices of engaging archives, issues of restitution and reparation, acts of erasure, silencing, and epistemic violence.