Dr Mark J. Sagarin MD 
Emergency Medicine Consultant, ED Specialist, Taranaki DHB, New Plymouth, NZ

Mark J. Sagarin graduated from Harvard Medical School as an MD in 1996.  He trained at the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency program in Boston, graduating in 2000.

He worked both community and teaching hospitals in Massachusetts and New Mexico in the US between 2000-2014.  In June of 2014, he moved with his partner and 3 daughters to Taranaki.  He has worked at Taranaki Base Hospital Emergency Department since 2014.  He has teaching and research interests in the areas of airway management, shoulder dislocations, and pain management.
Abstract

The American Opioid Explosion

Mark will discuss the origins and massive scope of the current devastating epidemic of opioid abuse in the United States.  He will describe a hugely “successful” drug industry supported push toward liberalization of opioid prescribing by doctors.  His experience as an Emergency Medicine physician for the past 20 years will include lessons learned from this man-made disaster.  We will discuss the concept of antifragility in human health, and how embracing this concept should make physicians reluctant to prescribe large quantities of opioids for chronic non-cancer pain.  He will encourage restraint in prescribing of opiates among physicians in Australasia and internationally.