Alumna profile: Leana Wen, MD

Public health advocate tackles opioid crisis.

By Huy Mach and Gaia Remerowski

To deal with the opioid crisis in Baltimore, City Health Commissioner, Leana Wen, MD ’07, issued a blanket prescription, which gives all city residents access to Narcan, a medication that reverses opioid-related overdoses. Through this intervention, along with extensive community training efforts, everyday people have saved the lives of 800 of their fellow citizens, Wen estimates. In her 2017 Commencement address, Wen urged MD graduates to “tackle society’s injustices.”

Published in the Spring 2017 issue