In 2005, Dr. Feinberg was the first physician in metropolitan Cincinnati to recognize that opioid injection drug use had emerged as a health threat, based on increased admissions for infective endocarditis.  She became involved in harm reduction efforts and, in 2014, after a nine-year effort she established Ohio's 3rd syringe exchange and its 1st true syringe services program, the Cincinnati Exchange Project. 

West Virginia has the highest rates of acute hepatitis B, acute hepatitis C, Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, and overdose deaths in the U.S. After a long career in HIV/AIDS, she came to WVU in late 2015 to focus on ending these opioid-related epidemics at their epicenter.  As Professor of Behavioral Medicine & Psychiatry and Professor of Medicine/Infectious Diseases, she is working hard to turn the tide on opioid misuse and opioid-related epidemics.  She has federal funding from National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Initiative, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and state funding from the WV Bureau for Public Health for these efforts.  Dr. Feinberg was recently named the first E.B. Flink Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Medicine.