Elisha M. Wachman, MD
Professor, Pediatrics
Biography
Dr. Wachman is a Professor of Pediatrics at the BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and attending neonatologist at Boston Medical Center (BMC). She is currently the Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Pediatrics at BMC and the Co-Director of Workforce Development for the BU CTSI. She is an internationally recognized clinical and translational researcher with expertise in neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS) and substance use disorders in pregnancy. Her specific research interests include the genetics and epigenetics of NOWS, treatments for opioid use disorder (OUD) in pregnancy, and the use of non-pharmacologic care methods to improve NOWS outcomes. She is currently the principal investigator on multiple NIH studies examining opioid use disorder (OUD) in pregnancy, genetic markers, placental biomarkers, and long-term maternal and infant outcomes. She also leads several other NIH and foundation funded studies involving pregnant individuals with OUD / infants with NOWS. Dr. Wachman is one of the co-directors of the BU Women’s Health Pre-Affinity Research Collaborative (Pre-ARC), and co-leads of the Massachusetts Perinatal Neonatal Quality Improvement Network Perinatal Opioid Project (PNQIN POP).
Other Positions
- Co-Director, Integrated Pilot Grant Award Program, Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Boston University
Education
- Boston University School of Medicine, MD
- Georgetown University, BS
Publications
- Published on 2/17/2025
Sousa A, Besong OTO, Wachman EM, Taglauer ES, Beane JE, Kefella Y, Koo JS, Saia K, Jones HE, Zhang H. Placental transcriptome analysis in opioid-exposed versus non-opioid exposed pregnancies. Placenta. 2025 Mar 25; 162:27-34. PMID: 39983471.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 12/31/2024
Parker MG, Rice F, Peguero C, Evans A, Schiff DM, Colvin B, Friedman H, Harer K, Kerr SM, Corwin MJ, Heeren TC, Colson ER, Wachman EM. Use of Practices to Reduce of Sudden Unexpected Infant Death among Caregivers of Opioid Exposed Newborns. J Addict Med. 2024 Dec 31. PMID: 39787446.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 12/12/2024
Tran EL, Dorsey AN, Miele K, Gilboa SM, Gosdin L, Terplan M, Sanjuan PM, Seligman NS, Wright T, Wachman EM, Smid M, Henninger M, Leeman L, Schneider PD, Rood K, Louis JM, Caveglia S, Davidson A, Shakib J, Shrestha H, Meaney-Delman DM, Kim SY. Patterns of Medication for Opioid Use Disorder During Pregnancy, 7 Clinical Sites, MATernaL and Infant clinical NetworK (MAT-LINK), 2014-2021. J Addict Med. 2025 Mar-Apr 01; 19(2):208-215. PMID: 39665432.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 12/5/2024
Board A, Vivolo-Kantor A, Kim SY, Tran EL, Thomas SA, Terplan M, Smid MC, Sanjuan PM, Wright T, Davidson A, Wachman EM, Rood KM, Morse D, Chu E, Miele K. Using ICD Codes Alone May Misclassify Overdoses Among Perinatal People. Am J Prev Med. 2025 Mar; 68(3):563-570. PMID: 39645154.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/21/2024
Epstein RL, Kurnellas A, Munroe S, Curtis MR, Biondi B, Wachman EM. Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Testing of Hepatitis C Virus-Exposed Children Across the United States. J Pediatric Infect Dis Soc. 2024 Nov 21; 13(Supplement_5):S159-S165. PMID: 39171788.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/17/2024
Vernovsky S, Herning A, Wachman EM. The role of genetics in neonatal abstinence syndrome. Semin Perinatol. 2025 Feb; 49(1):152006. PMID: 39613584.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/7/2024
Wingfield KK, Misic T, Miracle SA, McDermott CS, Jain K, Abney NM, Richardson KT, Rubman MB, Beierle JA, Wachman EM, Bryant CD. The acoustic properties, syllable structure, and syllable sequences of ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) during neonatal opioid withdrawal in FVB/N mouse substrains. bioRxiv. 2024 Nov 07. PMID: 39574631.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/1/2024
Wachman EM, Friedman H. Is Now the Time for Clonidine as a First-Line Agent for Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome? Pediatrics. 2024 Nov 01; 154(5). PMID: 39403055.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 9/30/2024
Wingfield KK, Misic T, Jain K, McDermott CS, Abney NM, Richardson KT, Rubman MB, Beierle JA, Miracle SA, Sandago EJ, Baskin BM, Lynch WB, Borrelli KN, Yao EJ, Wachman EM, Bryant CD. The ultrasonic vocalization (USV) syllable profile during neonatal opioid withdrawal and a kappa opioid receptor component to increased USV emissions in female mice. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2025 Feb; 242(2):427-447. PMID: 39348003.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/6/2024
Winhusen TJ, Kropp F, Greenfield SF, Krans EE, Lewis D, Martin PR, Gordon AJ, Davies TH, Wachman EM, Douaihy A, Parker K, Xin X, Jalali A, Lofwall MR. Trauma Prevalence and Its Association With Health-related Quality of Life in Pregnant Persons With Opioid Use Disorder. J Addict Med. 2025 Jan-Feb 01; 19(1):20-25. PMID: 39105509.
Read at: PubMed
View 88 more publications: View full profile at BUMC