Dr. Stefan Kertesz serves at the Birmingham Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center and as Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Since 1996, he has focused his clinical care and research on the medical and addiction care of vulnerable populations, notably persons who are homeless. Starting at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program in 1996, he transitioned to Birmingham in 2002, and currently runs the Homeless Patient-Aligned Care Team at Birmingham VA Medical Center. His research, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Veterans Administration Health Services Research Merit program, has focused on natural history of illicit drug use, addiction treatment services and design of patient-centered care for homeless individuals. He serves on the Opioid Safety Initiative and the Opiate Advisory Team for the Birmingham VA Medical Center. In addition to briefing Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in January 2016, his popular commentaries on opioids have appeared in Slate.com, The Hill, STATNews and The Huffington Post. His recent work highlights the patient-level outcomes associated with incautious termination of opioid prescriptions. His views do not represent positions of any federal agency or the state of Alabama.