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Catholic Health Systems Continuing Medical Education

By April 11, 2025No Comments

In March 2025, MATTERS’ Founder and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Joshua Lynch, presented at the Catholic Health System’s Continuing Medical Education (CME) Saturdays series. During his talk, Dr. Lynch highlighted the MATTERS program and its focus on linkage to treatment, telemedicine services, and harm reduction.

Click on the video below to watch Dr. Lynch’s presentation on the MATTERS initiative.

During his talk, Dr. Lynch reflects on on why he started the MATTERS program, largely due to inefficiencies in the way our health care system treats individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD). He posits, “Why is it so hard providing good access to great care for substance use disorder? We don’t have these struggles with other disease processes like cardiovascular disease.”

The MATTERS program aims to efficiently link people with OUD to a treatment organization of their choice. However, linkage to treatment for people with substance use disorder has traditionally proven difficult. Dr. Lynch continues to say that, “Typically, we would just give patients a list of phone numbers that weren’t vetted or that didn’t work…at the end of an encounter…If you do all this work and have solid linkage, or even a warm hand-off, but the financial aspect of it prohibits progress and there’s no way to get to the appointment, then unfortunately, the process typically ends there.”

MATTERS aims to address barriers to treatment and resources for opioid and substance use disorder – for both patients and providers. In his presentation, Dr. Lynch outlines the different aspects of the MATTERS program, including its medication and transportation voucher and follow-up support services.

Lastly, Dr. Lynch reviewed emerging threats in the U.S. drug supply such as xylazine, ibogaine, and medetomidine during his presentation. It is vitally important for clinicians to understand the changing trends in the drug supply to effectively educate patients on harm reduction strategies and treatment options.

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