Deepika Slawek, MD, MPH, MS is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Montefiore Health Systems and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY in the Division of General Internal Medicine. She is board certified in Infectious Diseases, Addiction Medicine, and Internal Medicine and is the Co-Director of the Montefiore Medical Cannabis Program. Dr. Slawek  studies how to reduce morbidity and mortality in people with HIV (PWH) and people who use drugs (PWUD) using a harm reduction framework. She aims to study solutions for PWH and PWUD informed by her clinical experiences and patient’s experiences. Dr. Slawek is the recipient of a K23 award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to test how different formulations of medical cannabis effect neuropathic pain and inflammation in PLWH in an innovative quasi-experimental study. She is leading groundbreaking foundation-funded research to determine whether medical cannabis is effective in reducing opioid analgesic use in people with pain.

Prior to joining Montefiore-Einstein, Dr. Slawek completed her residency training in Primary Care Internal Medicine at Stony Brook University Hospital and her Infectious Diseases Fellowship at New York University/Bellevue Hospital Center. She holds a Masters of Science in Clinical Research Methods from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

1.     Slawek DE, Arnsten J, Zhang C, Grossberg R, Stein M, Cunningham CO. Daily and near-daily cannabis use is associated with HIV viral load suppression in people living with HIV who use cocaine. AIDS Care. Vol 32, 2020. Doi: 10.1080/09540121.2020.1799922
2.     Slawek DE, Merlin JS, Owens MA, Long DM, Gonzalez CE, White DM, Lopez SA, Heath SL, Goodin BR. Increasing age is associated with elevated circulating interleukin-6 and enhanced temporal summation of mechanical pain in people living with HIV and chronic pain. Pain Reports. 2020; 5(6):p e859. doi: 10.1097/PR9.0000000000000859
3.     Slawek DE, Althouse AD, Feldman RF, … Merlin JS. Cannabis dispensary staff approaches to counseling on potential contraindications to cannabis use: Insights from a national self-report survey. BMC Primary Care. 2023 Jul 14;24(1):145. PMID: 37442944, PMCID: PMC10347704.
4.     Ross J, Slawek DE, Yamada J, Starrels J, Arnsten JH. Increasing access to medical cannabis: establishment of a medical cannabis program in a safety-net academic medical center. NEJM Catalyst. 2022 January; 3(2):CAT.21.0373.doi:10.1056/CAT.21.0373 
5.     Zolotov Y, Lomba J, Ghiroli M, Masyukova M, Arnsten JH, Starrels JL, Ross J, Cunningham CO, Slawek DE. “It doesn’t make any sense to even try”: the disruptive impact of COVID-19’s first wave on people with chronic pain using medical cannabis in New York. Journal of Cannabis Research. 2023 March 29;5(1):10. doi: 10.1186/s42238-023-00180-1. PubMed PMID: 36978185; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10049907.
6.     Slawek DE, Arnsten JH (2023). Medical use of cannabis and cannabinoids in adults. UpToDate. 2023 Jul 31. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/medical-use-of-cannabis-and-cannabinoids-in-adults?source=mostViewed_widget#.