Keynote speaker for the 2013 NCAPA Summer Conference is Fred Brason II, President/CEO of Project Lazarus, a community-based opioid overdose prevention program. Brason received the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Health Leader Award in 2012 for his work with Project Lazarus.
Brason will be speaking at the 37th annual NCAPA Summer Conference on Monday, August 19. This year’s conference, which is expected to attract more than 1000 physician assistants and nurse practitioners from across the nation, will be held at the Kingston Plantation in Myrtle Beach, SC.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the misuse of classified prescription drug abuse has now reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. Brason’s keynote address will explore the national trends in opioid overdose and the efforts of Project Lazarus to stem this problem at local, state, and national levels. For the past year, NCAPA has partnered with Project Lazarus in urging all physician assistants practicing in North Carolina to register with the North Carolina Controlled Substance Reporting System.
In addition to his work as president of Project Lazarus, Brason also serves on the SAMHSA/CSAT Emerging Opioid Overdose Surveillance Group and on the Advisory Board for the NC Controlled Substance Reporting System. He is a member of the National Association of Drug Diversion investigators (NADDI) and consults for the North Carolina Medical Society Opioid Death Reduction Task Force.
