Co-founder, Director
Bridge | CA Bridge | Alameda Health System | Highland Hospital, California
Josh Luftig, PA-C, has over 20 years of experience in Emergency Medicine, is a co-founder of CA Bridge, and serves as Director of Harm Reduction and National Implementation Leader. He is a nationally recognized expert in hospital and ED-based addiction treatment (MAT), naloxone distribution, and harm reduction, and is a regular speaker at local and national conferences.
Josh is a co-creator of the CA Bridge Model for EDs and hospitals: rapid initiation of evidence-based addiction treatment paired with peer navigation. Since the program's launch in 2018, Josh has co-led a 67-fold program expansion, growing from a 4-hospital pilot to over 270 hospitals as of 2023, covering the majority of hospitals in California; and now expanding to 11 additional states.
He co-established one of the nation’s largest ED-based MAT initiation programs at Highland Hospital in Oakland, CA, and co-developed a novel high-dose rapid buprenorphine induction protocol that was published in JAMA and widely adopted as a standard for EDs. He also created one of the first high-volume, low-threshold ED-based naloxone distribution programs, resulting in a 65-fold increase in the naloxone provisioning rate. Under his leadership, the statewide naloxone program saw a 162-fold expansion, from just one hospital in 2019 to 199 hospitals in 2023. As of Q4 2023, this initiative has provided 200,120 naloxone kits to EDs for free distribution, making it the largest ED-based distribution project in the country.
Always Open, Always Safe: A Blueprint for 24/7 ED Based Harm Reduction
Friday, April 5, 2024
1:15 PM – 2:30 PM
