 Dean Jameson, thank you very much for that nice introduction, and Karen, Secretary Murphy, and Dr. Hughes-Lauren, thank you for being here too. This is a really important effort that we're making here in Pennsylvania, and this is a really important part of that, and I appreciate your allowing us to use Penn Medicine as a backdrop for this. This is a really important place to make this point. We have a big problem here in Pennsylvania. It's an opioid problem. There are too many people dying from drug overdose in Pennsylvania. Let me give you some examples. In 2014, 2,500 people died in Pennsylvania of drug overdose. That's how many people we know died. Last year it was worse, I think 3,500. That's almost 10 every day died of a drug overdose, and this year, so far, it looks like it's going to be worse. We've got to do something about this. And if the statistics aren't enough for you, the problem, as Dr. Jameson said, is this affects everybody. This is not an urban or rural thing. It affects everybody. It's not northeast Pennsylvania, southwest Pennsylvania. It's all over. It affects men and women. It affects Republicans as well as Democrats. We've got to do something about this. Not too long ago, I was with a friend of mine, I've known him for a long time. Little man about my age that is old, okay? And he came up to me and gave me an envelope. He said, I want you to read this. And I said, come on, we know each other well, and if you don't have to give me letters, I mean, if you want something, just ask me. He said, no, it's not about that. He said, and he sat down, he started crying. He said, my daughter died just two weeks ago from a drug overdose. That's the problem we have in Pennsylvania. There is not a family that is unaffected by this epidemic. Actually, it's a plague. There's not a family that doesn't have someone, a neighbor, a friend, a family member, or personally is suffering from this kind of a disease, this disease, substance use disorder. We've got to do something about it. And so what we're trying to do at the state level is two things. We're trying to give sufferers more resources and more options. We've got to do that. Starting with eliminating the stigma of substance use disorder, moving through the treatment options that are available and should exist for every patient, and every patient has different needs. The second thing we're trying to do and to the point of what we're talking about today is giving medical practitioners the resources, more resources for them to do what they want to do and need to do to make life right for their patients. That's simply what this is today. ABCMAP is really a program that allows medical practitioners to see what their patients are being prescribed to make sure that what they're doing is not at odds with that person's health. I know there's some early first-year medical students here, right? At some point you hope you're going to take the Hippocratic Oath, and you want to make life better for your patients. With this, we're trying to do that, trying to help you do that. So that you can look into this database and make sure that you're not prescribing something that is at odds with the health of your patient. This was started actually back in 1973 with Schedule II drugs. It's been expanded since 2014 in Pennsylvania and other states before that, so that you can look into this and say, okay, I'm going to make sure that I'm not giving a drug that is at odds. It's going to interfere with something else that someone else is prescribing. With the opioid crisis, it's also going to give you the ability to see if maybe someone is taking too many of these things and is crying out for help. It's giving you tools that are going to make your life easier, make the life of your patients easier, and I think that's what you're going to want, and that's what this school is going to teach you to want. And I think that's why you went into this profession. So we're trying to help you with this. It's a registration program that doctors are signing up for. It has certain rules, but basically it comes back fundamentally to the idea that doctors want to do what's best for their patients. And we're just trying as a state to help you do just that. So let me introduce Secretary Karen Murphy to talk more about what we're doing here with the ABCMAD program and what we hope to see as a result of this program. So thank you very much, Karen. Thank you, Governor, and thank you to Penn Medicine for allowing us to have this beautiful backdrop to announce what we think is a very important activity of the Department of Health. So as many of you know, my Penn friends know I come from a healthcare background. I'm a registered nurse, worked in the healthcare system. I'm not going to tell the first year students how long because it was a long time. But I was awestruck when I came to the Department of Health by the absolute huge magnitude of this public health crisis. And really it has taken, I think, and I consider myself a member of the healthcare community, it's taken us a while, both on the federal level, on the individual practitioner level, and as an industry to really address this issue. I think the quantitative magnitude of what we're talking about, as the Governor said, 3,500 lives are lost every year. If it was any other public health issue, I think we might have gotten our act together a little bit sooner. So I'm pleased that the state has been able to, as a result of Act 191, launch the prescription drug monitoring program. I would urge everyone to share with all licensed practitioners that have prescribing authority to register for the prescription drug monitoring program. We need to be aware of the goal of the program. The goal of the program is to monitor prescription drugs for the purpose of identifying those in need of help and getting them that help. If all we turn out to do is monitor prescription drugs and don't get the individuals that need the help that they need, we will not have been successful. So I urge everyone to encourage, as the law requires, all licensed professionals with prescribing authority to register for the prescription drug monitoring program. And I also urge all of those professionals to be aware of the treatment availability and the appropriate way to move people to treatment. And at the Department of Health, along with the Department of Drug and Alcohol and DHS and many other departments that the Governor has called for a multi-agency approach to this issue, we will be moving forward, we will be working together with healthcare professionals to identify better ways and better notification of the areas that people can receive treatment. So thank you again for having me in this beautiful, having us in this beautiful Penn campus. We really appreciate it and we certainly appreciate the support in spreading the word. I'd now like to introduce Dr. Hughes. Dr. Lauren Hughes is the Deputy Secretary of Innovation and a family practitioner that actually practices at Penn Medicine. Thank you. Hello everyone. As Secretary Murphy said, my name is Dr. Lauren Hughes and in my role at this state, one of the offices that I oversee is the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Office. I'm honored to join Governor Wolf and Secretary Murphy today to speak about the great importance of this program. As a family physician, I've seen firsthand the devastating effect of drug abuse upon patients and families. I have practiced in two other states where I had access to PDMP systems. Having this important data available helped me make better decisions for my patients. I currently have the incredible privilege of practicing here in Philadelphia at Penn Family Medicine and until today I would not have had any way of knowing whether the patient I was seeing was also receiving opioid pain prescriptions and other controlled substances from doctors in different healthcare systems across the city. Now because of Pennsylvania's PDMP, I have access to this extremely valuable and potential life-saving information. The current prescription opioid and drug overdose epidemic is the worst public health crisis Pennsylvania has experienced in recent history. The disease of addiction spares no one regardless of age, race, gender, income, profession or zip code. Everyone is potentially vulnerable to addiction if they misuse prescription drugs. That is why I stand before you with a clear message for all of Pennsylvania's licensed medical professionals. Register today to be a part of the PDMP. It is imperative that prescribers and dispensers register to use the PDMP and join with us to stem the tide of the prescription opioid abuse crisis in Pennsylvania. As Secretary Murphy stated, the PDMP system does not make it harder for physicians to prescribe opioids for legitimate pain. In fact, it assists them by identifying potential drug-drug interactions and confirming whether or not the patient may already have concerning red flags for the possible disease of addiction. All important pieces of information that leads to safer prescribing. Our goal is to provide education to all prescribers and pharmacists in this state on how to use the PDMP to identify addiction and refer patients to treatment that they need. Pennsylvania's PDMP opened for registration on August 8th. At that time, healthcare professionals with authority to prescribe controlled substances and pharmacists who dispense those controlled substances gained the ability to register for the system. Starting today, those that have registered for the PDMP will be able to check the controlled substance prescription history of their patients before they prescribe or dispense. Medical professionals play an absolutely critical role in making this program the effective tool it can be for saving lives. To date, the PA PDMP office has provided program information and education to Pennsylvania's prescribers and dispensers, hospitals and health systems, academic centers and professional medical associations. We've done this through webinars, mass mailings of letters, mass emails, brochures and fact sheets, and via the Pennsylvania Health Alert Network and the Department of Health website. We will also be reaching out further to licensed medical professionals through radio and TV PSAs that will begin airing very soon, as well as through the department's social media channels. Moving forward, the PA PDMP office anticipates pursuing these activities, providing widespread education on how to incorporate the PDMP into clinical workflows and connecting patients to treatment, integrating the PDMP system with electronic health records and pharmacy systems to increase and improve the ease of access and use, and evaluating the use of PDMP data for research purposes to better track the epidemic and impact of different interventions. In closing, I want to repeat my call to all licensed medical professionals across the Commonwealth. Register today for the Pennsylvania prescription drug monitoring program at doh.pa.gov slash PDMP. I am confident that Pennsylvania's prescription drug monitoring program and the licensed medical professionals who use it will play a significant role in reducing prescription drug abuse in addiction across the Commonwealth. Thank you very much.