Thanks in part to an educational research grant from the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence, Dr. Clair Kueny, assistant professor of psychological science at Missouri S&T, and Dr. Venkat Allada, professor of engineering management and systems engineering at Missouri S&T, partnered with Dr. Casey Burton, director of medical research at Phelps Health to help the hospital better understand and take new directions in addressing the community’s opioid epidemic. Engineering management senior design students helped identify community gaps in knowledge and resources available to combat the epidemic. This data was then provided to industrial-organizations psychology students who used the data to provide guidance to Phelps Health on how to change processes and interventions to better educate the community about opioids and opioid addiction.

During the fall semester students in Dr. Allada’s engineering management senior design class will offer recommendations to Phelps Health on how to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of the recommended programs. This project received Institutional Review Board approval so that the instructors could study the perceptions and impact of this program on student learning and skill development as well as organizational perceptions related to the success of this partnership.