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Student Spotlight: Kasha Bornstein, MSc, EMT-P, MD/MPH candidate

At the IDEA (Infectious Disease Elimination Act) Exchange, a syringe service program in Miami-Dade County, people who inject drugs (PWID) can trade in their used needles for clean ones, as well as get tested for HIV and Hepatitis C. They are also provided with various other resources to prevent the risk of infections, blood-borne diseases, and drug overdoses.

While the IDEA Exchange has improved public health in Miami-Dade, such as by increasing proper syringe disposal as researchers have recently found, it has also provided medical and public health students with opportunities for hands-on experience to the field in practice. 

Kasha Bornstein, MSc, EMT-P, a third-year MD/MPH candidate, has been involved with the IDEA Exchange since the summer of 2017, right before beginning medical school at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Bornstein has assisted with enrolling participants, has performed HIV and Hepatitis C testing and counseling, as well as provided education and resources on safer injection practices and overdose prevention and treatment for patients.

“It has been a powerful experience to learn from program participants about the circumstances that they face on a daily basis, including overdose, infections, losing friends and family, and overcoming daily struggles to get by,” Bornstein said. “I also had the opportunity to see how people who inject drugs who live outside lookout for one another in communities, contrasting with the dominant cultural rhetoric about antisocial behaviors that are related to drug use.” 

After volunteering throughout the fall of 2017, Bornstein decided to fulfill his Master of Public Health capstone field experience requirement at the IDEA Exchange and began working at the program on a daily basis thereafter. During that time, Bornstein helped advocate for SSP legislation in the Florida Legislature in Tallahassee and shared experiences with legislators to help illustrate the charts that had shown a decline in opioid-related deaths in Miami-Dade.

“These experiences undergirded my capstone project, which focused on evaluating the effects of the IDEA Exchange on injection drug-related morbidity and mortality at Jackson Memorial Hospital,” Bornstein said. 

Bornstein’s capstone project was supported by a grant from the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Bornstein worked alongside classmates and mentors and compared the admission rates for PWID and associated costs in the years before and after the IDEA Exchange opened its doors. The project found a significant decrease in infections, overdoses, and costs after the program was implemented in the community.

Bornstein considers Hansel Tookes, MD, MPH, assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Miller School, and Joan St. Onge, the senior associate dean for Miller School’s Graduate Medical Education as mentors. Bornstein has also taken inspiration from previous mentors in harm reduction at the Trystereo New Orleans Harm Reduction Network; Nora Fuller and Arielle Schecter. 

“The IDEA Exchange has not merely enriched my educational experience, it has defined it in many ways,” Bornstein said. “I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to take what I learned in public and medical classes and apply them on the ground, doing research and pushing for public health policy reform.”

Bornstein holds a Master of Pharmacology from the Tulane University School of Medicine and was previously a paramedic at the City of New Orleans Emergency Medical Services. Bornstein was involved in harm reduction efforts in Louisiana to help reduce the spread of blood-borne diseases, as well as to decrease opioid-related deaths.

Written by Amanda Torres
Published on July 23, 2019