Academy of Pain Medicine to hold safe prescription course

GLENVIEW — On the cusp of the recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report about the growing death toll from prescription drug deaths, the physician leadership of the American Academy of Pain Medicine will roll out a new education initiative: Safe Opioid Prescribing: Reversing the Trends.

Debuting as a two-day course that will be held in Palm Springs, Calif. in February 2012, the Safe Opioid Prescribing program is based on clinical research and data in the field of pain medicine that has been effective in minimizing the risks and reducing the number of deaths associated with opioid prescribing for chronic pain by educating family physicians, internists and other primary care clinicians.

“We have been deeply concerned about the serious public health problem of unintentional overdose deaths from prescription medications,” AAPM President Perry G. Fine, M.D. said. “The Safe Opioid Prescribing program is one way we are actively seeking to make a difference in this issue by sharing our expertise with other clinicians, who may not be as aware of the most relevant information in prescribing and the practice of pain medicine,”

As the lead clinical experts in the specialty of pain, the physician leaders from the American Academy of Pain Medicine have dedicated hours to solving this issue.

“We strongly believe that prescribers, policymakers, and our communities must work collaboratively to ensure all patients who need prescription medication have access to them but are safely and appropriately prescribed and consumed,” Dr. Fine added.

The Academy’s Safe Opioid Prescribing Program is based on a successful pilot program that was launched in 2007 in Utah through the Utah Department of Health, when a public awareness and provider educational program effectively reversed trends of unintentional drug deaths in the state.

“After the first year of the 2007 campaign, the state experienced its largest decreases in prescription drug deaths since 1994,” AAPM Board Member Lynn Webster, M.D. said. “These findings were remarkable.”