Meet an APA Awardee: Saeed Ahmed, M.D.

While opioid overdose deaths are experiencing a downtick, the opioid crisis remains a prevalent issue. Millions of Americans are living with opioid use disorder (OUD), yet data show that only about one in four have access to medications such as buprenorphine or methadone to assist with treatment.

One significant barrier is that current opioid treatment protocols have stringent rules. Methadone treatment, for example, requires mandatory daily clinic visits for the first 90 days and a lengthy process to qualify for take-home doses. This protocol can be untenable for patients with employment, child care, mobility, and/or financial constraints.

Inspired by a successful innovation in tuberculosis care, Saeed Ahmed, M.D., thinks video technology can step in. And as the 2025 recipient of the O’Leary Award for Innovation in Psychiatry, he’ll have a chance to pilot his solution. Ahmed is chair of psychiatry, medical director of addiction services, and director of the opioid treatment program at Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut.

The O’Leary Award was established by the APA Foundation with support from the O’Leary family in 2022. It’s named for the late Paul J. O’Leary, M.D., who served in numerous positions at APA, including Assembly speaker and vice chair of the Executive Committee. The award recognizes an innovative idea to improve the quality of, efficiency of, and/or access to mental health care services–especially for minority and underserved communities.

Ahmed’s proposal is to launch a video directly observed therapy (VDOT) for OUD at his treatment center. VDOT combines secure automated medication dispensers with remote supervision of patient compliance via smartphone-based video recordings, which can be live or asynchronous. The video observation maintains the ability to monitor patients’ medication use while also cutting travel costs and accommodating varied patient schedules.

“Our approach is designed to bridge the gap in treatment accessibility and adherence, providing a more flexible and patient-centric solution to opioid use disorder treatment,” wrote Ahmed, who in addition to his clinical duties conducts research on reducing barriers to treatment access for substance use disorders.

A component of the O’Leary Award is $5,000 in seed money to jump-start the awardee’s idea. Ahmed plans to use the honorarium to purchase the secure medication dispensers and provide training sessions for both clinicians and patients selected for the pilot.

Ahmed will use the pilot period to test adherence rates and other clinical outcomes, including patient relapses or overdoses. He also will conduct surveys with patients and staff to see how user-friendly the protocol is and determine the feasibility of a broader rollout. ■