SOMA’s Opioid Task Force will be hosting Dr. Richard Morgan, DO over Zoom to present on addiction in medicine. He will be discussing awareness of how the opioid pandemic can adversely affect anyone including physicians and the consequences of addiction. He will share his own story about his struggle with addiction, the consequences of addiction, and how it affects one’s life in addition to sharing the signs of addiction among healthcare workers and sharing how to help those who suffer from chemical dependency. We think this would be a beneficial perspective to provide students as this is an ongoing issue we will face regularly in clinical practice. The event will be over Zoom to properly accomodate any COVID precautions that could develop in the coming months.
About Dr. Morgan: Richard Morgan is a D.O. who graduated from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1998 and completed his residency in PM & R at NYU Medical Center in 2002. A common dental procedure exposed Dr. Morgan to the world of opiates, which changed his life forever. A series of bad choices and unfortunate circumstances fueled by his addiction led Dr. Morgan to a federal indictment and, ultimately, a 14-year federal prison sentence. Dr. Morgan’s remarkable story will show how this addiction evolved, the choice that led to incarceration, and the turnaround that had led him to become a full-time clinical instructor at his medical school where it all began. He now spends his time not only educating the future doctors of America, but Dr. Morgan continues to share his story with the student population, as well as clinicians everywhere, in the hope to not only continue to bring awareness to the the “original” pandemic that has plagued our nation for the past twenty years, but to educate other healthcare personnel on how to recognize the signs and symptoms of addiction, and the resources available to help them.