Patricia R. Freeman, RPh, PhD, FAPhA

Dr. Freeman's research interests include drug abuse policy, including serving as principal investigator on a project designed to enhance understanding of the opioid prescribing and dispensing decision‐making processes of primary care providers and pharmacists. She is principle investigator on the Kentucky Opioid Response Effort (KORE) – Vivitrol®grant, an initiative to provide a comprehensive targeted response to Kentucky's opioid crisis by expanding access to a full continuum of high quality, evidence‐based opioid prevention, treatment, recovery and harm reduction services. She is a co‐investigator on the NIH initiative Helping to End Addition Long‐term (HEAL), a trans‐agency effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis. Other recent activities include evaluating prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) and their impact and effectiveness at preventing prescription drug abuse and diversion. She also served as the principal investigator on a study funded by the National Institute of Justice to evaluate PDMPs to identify those with the greatest utility for law enforcement
investigations and prosecution; as co‐investigator on a project aimed at understanding the consumer perspective of the chilling effect of PDMPs; and principal investigator on an evaluation of the Kentucky
All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting (KASPER) program.

She earned a Bachelor of Pharmacy degree and a PhD from the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and the UK College of Medicine.