DR. VANILA SINGH

Dr. Vanila Singh was interviewed by Justin Harvey on the Anesthesia Success podcast, whose mission is to dig up valuable information and entertaining stories to allow anesthesia and pain physicians navigate career and finances with confidence.

This week, I talk to Dr. Vanila Singh about her experience in organizational and policy leadership. We talk about what it takes to stay strong when you get involved in politics and the ways that Dr. Singh’s career in anesthesia has uniquely shaped her to become an incredible leader. We also discuss why we need more physicians involved in all sorts of institutional decision-making in both government and healthcare organizations.

You will learn:

• Dr. Singh’s experience with being the “spokesperson” for the shareholders of her task force.
• Dr. Singh shares some of her favorite leaders from history who have impacted her life the most.
• Dr. Signh shares some of her favorite ways to unwind when she is able to find the time to do so.

Listen to the episode.

One of our great warriors whom I have had the honor to treat is a Vietnam veteran who suffers from peripheral neuropathy, a chronic painful condition with significant medical co-morbidities that have given him pause during this pandemic.

Norm didn’t go to Vietnam only to be forgotten here at home.

American society has been adversely affected by COVID-19, not just from the virus but through the precautions and policies implemented to slow its spread. Intended to minimize the overburdening of our medical facilities, these actions have also had a devastatingly stalling effect on the U.S. and world economies — not just globally, but underneath the roof of each home.

This adverse impact has hit the homes and lives of veterans particularly hard.

Our veterans deserve better, and as we work to re-open our economy, it’s imperative we put veterans and their needs front and center – in particular, we need to consider specific veteran challenges in this COVID era, including workforce and hiring initiatives by the private and public sectors and particularly proactive health care for both the mind and body.

Continue reading on American Military News.

Dr. Singh and Lanhee J. Chen, fellow at the Hoover Institution and director of domestic policy studies at Stanford University, jointly published an op-ed for The Washington Post on strategies for reopening campuses in the fall.

For some colleges and universities, the decision to bring back in-person research and instruction this fall is a matter of basic economic survival. But even where it is not, the pandemic crisis threatens the essence of college life. No distance-learning program, regardless of how well thought-out or planned it is, can replace the interactions among students, faculty and others that normally take place on college campuses.

Our students have expressed frustration about taking all of their classes online. What’s more, some from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds haven’t had access to the technology, resources or quiet spaces necessary for effective distance learning.

For all of these reasons, we urge campuses to bring students and in-person instruction back for the fall term. A return to in-person instruction should follow a strategy based on the latest science, balanced with efforts to restore campus life — with particular care for those who are most likely to suffer adverse health effects from covid-19. Although college students generally fall into an age category that has not experienced significant negative impacts or mortality because of the coronavirus, others they interact with, such as faculty and staff, may be at higher risk.

Continue reading on Washington Post.

Dr. Vanila Singh was interviewed by Jarvis T. Gray on the Healthcare QualityCast, a podcast spotlighting today's most exciting and inspiring quality professionals within the healthcare industry.

Here in episode #65 Dr. Singh starts our show with a leadership mindset of keeping clarity and cutting out the noise; Dr. Singh shares her impressive background with us, and quality people lets just say that she is our first podcast guest with her very own Wikipedia page; Dr. Singh shares a best moment of failure that literally hinges on an act of congress; and how perseverance drove her and her team to success; She teaches us how she builds close team connections by focusing on the human-side of leadership; Dr. Singh gives us thoughtful reflections on what it takes to develop personally as a leader; She shares her best aha moment that works to achieve balance between her personal and professional lives; She tells us what she’s excited about around the future of healthcare and public health; And Dr. Singh gives her best career advice, encouraging us to stay at it and to be great.

Listen to the episode here.

BioDelivery Sciences International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BDSI), a rapidly growing commercial-stage specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to patients living with chronic conditions, announced on November 25, 2019 that it has named Dr. Singh, to its Board of Directors. “We are very excited and honored to have Dr. Singh join our organization as a Board member,” stated Peter Greenleaf, Chairman of BDSI.

Read full press release.

Dr. Singh joins the Board of Directors for the non-profit pain organization, ​Alliance to Advance Comprehensive Integrative Pain Management, a multi-stakeholder collaborative to promote comprehensive integrative pain management for the over 50 million Americans living with chronic pain. The press release was officially released on November 20, 2019.

Read full press release.

Dr. Singh and Senator Bill Cassidy, MD (R-LA) jointly published an op-ed for The Hill on the role of illicit substances in the opioid crisis. The article discusses new strategies to tackle the opioid epidemic and trade-based money laundering.

Members of a Mexican drug cartel recently massacred American women and children in broad daylight. The attack was a tragic reminder that cartels continue to run rampant, leaving a trail of violence, sorrow and death. Traditional methods of eliminating these criminal organizations have not solved the problem. We need a new strategy that targets how these dangerous organizations fund their illegal activities. In the meantime, these cartels continue to fuel a public health crisis with 60,000 Americans dying each year to overdose and many more losing their livelihood to violence and addiction-related to illicit drugs.

Criminals use a practice known as trade-based money laundering (TBML) to move illegal goods and money funding their operation. It’s how drug cartels traffic both drugs and people. It is how rogue nations get around international sanctions and how the black market continues to thrive under our noses, and it’s why people keep dying.

Continue reading on The Hill.

Dr. Singh authored an original article in the Public Health Reports Journal on the emerging role of toxic adulterants in street drugs in the U.S. illicit opioid crisis.

Drug overdose deaths in the United States are a substantial public health issue. The number of annual reported drug overdose deaths increased roughly 3-fold, from 23 500 in 2002 to 70 200 in 2017. Of even greater concern, during this same period, the number of opioid-related overdose deaths increased 4-fold, from 11 900 in 2002 to 47 600 in 2017.

From 2016 to 2017, rates of opioid-related overdose deaths rose from 42 400 to 47 600, an increase of 12%. Also during this period, death rates associated with cocaine and psychostimulants increased by 34.4% (from 3.2 to 4.3 per 100 000 population) and 33.3% (from 2.4 to 3.2 per 100 000 population), respectively, likely contributing to the rise in overall drug overdose deaths. On the other hand, the number of overdose deaths related to either prescription opioids (which include buprenorphine, codeine, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, meperidine, methadone, morphine, oxycodone, oxymorphone, and tramadol) or heroin did not increase.

Estimates based on provisional data for 2018 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explain these findings. Of an estimated 48 000 overall opioid-related overdose deaths in 2018, 28 400 deaths involved nonmethadone synthetic opioids, the most common of which was illicitly manufactured fentanyl. This trend is concerning because illicitly manufactured drugs commonly contain additional pharmacologically active components. These components are added during the illicit manufacturing process to either increase the bulk of the product or enhance the potency of the primary active component, are known as adulterants or cutting agents, and can themselves be toxic.

In this Executive Perspective, we review data on the opioid crisis and describe recent US and global trends in the role of toxic adulterants and other pharmacologically active components in illicitly manufactured street drugs. We also highlight the role of toxic adulterants in opioid-related overdose deaths, chronic illicit drug abuse, and other public health issues. Finally, based on the information provided, we propose that clinicians increase attention to the potential role of toxic adulterants when evaluating and treating patients involved in drug abuse, overdose death, and addiction and that future public and personal health responses to the opioid epidemic emphasize building awareness and knowledge about the presence and dangers of toxic adulterants. In this way, we can further highlight the need to aggressively decrease the supply of illicitly manufactured drugs.

Continue reading on Sage Journals.

Dr. Singh joint published a White House Opioid Roadmap with the Office of Science and Technology Policy on October 29, 2019.

Download Health Research and Development to Stem the Opioid Crisis: A National Roadmap.

Dr. Singh joined CalSIPP as a keynote speaker to discuss the climate of changing healthcare policy and the work of the Pain Management Task Force. The event was hosted on October 25, 2019.

Learn more about CalSIPP.