ABOUT
PRONTO is a series of studies led by researchers at Boston Medical Center’s Grayken Center for Addiction Clinical Addiction Research & Education (CARE) unit. The first project, PRONTO 1.0 (CDC: R01CE003052, PI: Walley, AY), was conducted between 2018 and 2022 to study the emergence of post-overdose outreach programs in Massachusetts. Post-overdose outreach is generally a partnership between public health and public safety entities, which uses 911 data to identify individuals and their social networks for follow-up outreach 24-72 hours after a drug-related overdose occurs. We surveyed every municipality in the Commonwealth to locate existing programs. We found that the majority of these programs utilize law enforcement officers and recovery coaches to conduct home-based outreach, though some programs include firefighters, EMS providers, harm reductionists, peers, social workers, clergy and other personnel. We have published several papers describing these programs, the manner in which these programs operate, and considerations for future practice (Formica et al., 2018; Bagley et al., 2019; Formica et al., 2021; Tori et al., 2022). Additional papers from the PRONTO 1.0 study and a best practices guideline document are currently being prepared. Please contact team@prontopostoverdose.org if to request full versions of any papers.
The other PRONTO studies being conducted by our team are PRONTO Adapt (NIDA: R21DA053307, PI: Walley, AY) and PRONTO Stimulants (CDC: R01CE003357, PI: Bagley, SM & Walley, AY). In PRONTO Adapt, we are conducting another statewide survey to understand how the landscape has changed since the PRONTO 1.0 survey, and to learn how COVID-19 may have contributed to changes in practice. For PRONTO Stimulants, our team is working with 11 post-overdose support team (POST) programs supported by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to understand how these programs are responding to a rise in stimulant overdose, developing a toolkit of adaptations to support these changes, and studying the impact of the toolkit.