The  National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) will provide more than $5 million in grants over four years to New York University and Brown University to study whether drug overdoses can be prevented by safe injection sites, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Maine, New York, and Rhode Island.

• Maine: NextGen Healthcare filed a data breach notification with the Maine attorney general's office confirming that hackers accessed the personal data of 1.05 million patients, including around 4,000 Maine residents. According to a letter sent to those affected by the breach, hackers stole patients' names, dates of birth, addresses, and Social Security numbers, but the company noted there is "no evidence of any access or impact to any of your health or medical records or any health or medical data." NextGen said it was alerted to suspicious activity on March 30 and later determined hackers broke into its systems between March 29 and April 14. (Page, TechCrunch, 5/8)
• New York/Rhode Island: The NIDA will provide more than $5 million in grants over four years to New York University and Brown University to study whether drug overdoses can be prevented by safe injection sites. As part of the study, two injection sites will open in New York City this year and one will open next year in Providence, Rhode Island. The researchers hope to enroll 1,000 participants to study how safe injection sites affect potential overdoses, estimate their costs, and gauge the potential savings for the healthcare and criminal justice systems. "There is a lot of discussion about overdose prevention centers, but ultimately, we need data to see if they are working or not, and what impact they may have on the community," said Nora Volkow, director of NIDA. (Johnson, Associated Press, 5/8; Wicklund, HealthLeaders, 5/8)
• York: Northwell Holdings, the investment arm of Northwell Health, and Aegis Ventures have announced they are starting Optain, a company aimed at using retinal imaging and artificial intelligence (AI) to detect and diagnose diseases. Optain is being funded with $12 million through Ascertain, a joint venture AI platform company created by Northwell and Aegis in April 2022 to form companies and commercialize AI solutions for healthcare. Optain's AI technology, which was developed by Eyetelligence, can analyze images from a small retinal camera and screen them for or diagnose multiple chronic and acute conditions. According to Optain CEO Jeff Dunkel, Optain will work with Northwell on research and development while the regulatory and commercial rollout processes are underway. (Perna, Modern Healthcare, 5/9)