Acronyms “Gahlore” and “Lahbsta” Tail Networking

One (and a half) week(s) down and I can already tell that this is going to be a major summer of learning for me. Days at the DPH here in Boston are filled with meetings with my boss David Young who is the Drug Control Program (DCP) Director (and data entry but that is less exciting so this post will be focused on the meetings). He is fairly new to his job and before him no one had taken his position in a few years, so he is very short of staff and has a lot on his plate that I hope I can help him with.

Going to these meetings with him have exposed me to all the behind the scenes of drug regulation and security with opioids. I had never thought before about all that goes into the licensing of a single person or organization in order to be able to handle drugs and give them to patients. There are tiny rules and millions of forms and procedures that need to be followed and filled out throughout the process. At first I thought some of this seemed tedious, but then I attended a meeting where a woman was put in front of the Board of Licensing in Pharmacy because someone had died under her supervision due to improper handling of drugs and now I understand how important it is to “protect the public” as one of the board members phrased it from the many potential dangers in the drug and pharmaceutical world. It is evident to me that the opioid epidemic is definitely not a single item fix and that it needs to be approached and tackled from a multitude of angles…

Besides my meetings and time frantically attempting to learn acronyms and policies to UNDERSTAND what is happening in these meetings, I have been put in charge of helping keep the MA Controlled Substance Regulation (MSCR) records up to date and also update the statuses of different doctors around the state whose MSC licenses expire or become active again etc. I keep triple checking that I spell the names correctly before I change the status of a person’s license to “expired” because part of me worries that I could mistakenly change the status of the wrong John Smith or some Patel person (because there are a BAJILLION OF THEM who are pharmacists and it is confusing) and really get someone into trouble. So fingers crossed on that one!

I have gone around to the higher ups in the office and introduced myself and everyone seems very friendly. I also made friends with the girl in the cubicle next to me named Hannah who is a rising second year in law school at GW in DC! So she will be a good resource to have as well when I ask her about her law school experiences as we walk through the North End on out lunch breaks. I eat a Lobster Tail from Mike’s Pastries every day which is going to be a big problem when I cant fit into my work pants in August before I go to Spain and get even fatter! Oh good. Cant wait. But lobster tail eating is networking/ relationship building as well so I suppose it’s worth it.

At the end of this summer I hope to have a much better understanding on the underground works of how healthcare initiatives are run and operating. There are so many projects in the MA DPH and they are fairly well funded because Charlie Baker is very passionate about these health services. MA actually just passed Hawaii for #1 healthiest state in the country so there is no better place that I could learn how to take care of our country’s citizens. MA also has the largest amount of funding for suicide prevention programs and awareness ($4 million) and a much larger amount of resources put towards opioid treatment facilities and drug disposal sites (an average of 1 every 6-8 miles VS 1 every 20 miles in most other states). I wonder how MA can be the healthiest state in the country yet also have such a huge drug problem, but I am seeing more and more every day the efforts being put in to work for the betterment of this cause ad implement new resources and ideas, so I imagine I’ll understand more soon.

I am excited to keep up with my learning and take on more responsibility throughout my internship 🙂