Support Hospital Opioid Use Disorder Treatment (SHOUT) ECHO
This program has concluded, but you can access all previous sessions through our
SHOUT YouTube playlist.
As opioid-related health complications have risen, hospitals have seen more admissions tied to injection drug use. These stays present a key opportunity to address opioid use disorder (OUD). The SHOUT ECHO series, which ran from June 2021 to September 2024, equipped providers with tools to initiate buprenorphine, manage complex pain, reduce stigma, and coordinate multidisciplinary care. The series emphasized the role of acute care settings in delivering evidence-based OUD treatment and highlighted scalable models to improve outcomes during hospitalization. This series provided learners with free continuing education credits.
In Fall 2025, this series merged with the TxRx (Medications for Substance Use Disorders) ECHO, creating a dynamic, unified learning experience. Learn more and register.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the need/business case for treating OUD in the hospital setting.
- Illustrate the process for starting buprenorphine therapy for hospitalized patients.
- Develop a clinical care management plan for acute and perioperative pain for patients engaged in pharmacotherapy for OUD.
- Formulate cross-disciplinary care between hospital medicine, general surgeons, anesthesia
and others. - Describe current models for improved care of hospitalized patients with OUD.
- Describe how stigma limits access to care for people with OUD.
- Discuss actionable steps that can be taken to reduce stigma.
SHOUT Texas
Support Hospital Opioid Use Disorder Treatment (SHOUT) Texas is a program at Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin in partnership with Be Well Texas, a program of UT Health San Antonio, working to increase access to substance and opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment and harm reduction during acute hospitalization in Texas.
Hub Members
Alanna Boulton, MSHS, MSHA, PMP
Health Systems Science Program Manager, Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin
Nicholaus “Nick” Christian, MD, MBA
Staff Clinician, Office of the Clinical Director
National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program
Blair Walker, MD
Chief of Psychiatry, Dell Seton Medical Center
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin
John Weems-Embers, MD
Associate Director of Addiction Medicine, CommUnityCare Health Centers
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin
Jananie Ramesh, MD
Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin