American Academy of Pain Medicine Safe Opioid Prescribing Course Proves Highly Effective

GLENVIEW, Ill., Nov. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) released survey results today demonstrating the value of its Safe Opioid Prescribing Course as 93 percent of respondents report changing their practices after taking the course.

Specifically, more than half of respondents to the survey reported that they have improved their practices, related to prescribing extended-release or long-acting opioid therapy, by taking the following actions: monitoring and maintaining patients on these medications; conducting risk assessments and overall evaluation of patients who are potential candidates; communicating with and counseling patients and caregivers about their safe use and accessing and utilizing a Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP).

"We have been in the forefront of providing programs to educate physicians on best practices in opioid prescribing, because we believe that increased education is one of the best ways to impact some of the problems that have occurred in opioid prescribing," said AAPM President Elect, Dr. Lynn Webster. "We are pleased that these survey results have validated the effectiveness of our course."

AAPM's physician leadership rolled out the Safe Opioid Prescribing course as a comprehensive educational initiative earlier in 2012.  The initiative is based on a 2007 statewide prescriber intervention program that took place in Utah to address the growing death toll from prescription drug deaths. The AAPM's Safe Opioid Prescribing course's debut coincided with the release of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report about the growing death toll from prescription drug deaths.

The Safe Opioid Prescribing educational initiative is currently offered as a live course that is geared toward family physicians, internists and other primary care clinicians.  It 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. The program's curriculum uses the expert physicians in pain medicine and the science of prescribing to help prescribers reverse the trends of overdose, death and diversion through clinician and patient education.

The next two Safe Opioid Courses are scheduled for the Florida Academy of Family Physicians Meeting, on December 14, 2012, on Amelia Island, Florida and at the conclusion of AAPM's 29^th Annual Meeting on April 14, 2013 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

More information about the Safe Opioid Prescribing: Reversing the Trend Course, as well as the other programs of the Academy will be posted on the AAPM website when available at www.painmed.org. 

The American Academy of Pain Medicine is the premiere association for 2,400 pain physicians and their treatment teams. Now in its 29^th year of service, the Academy's mission is to optimize the health of patients in pain and eliminate it as a major health public health problem by advancing the practice in the specialty of pain medicine.  More information is available at www.painmed.org.

SOURCE American Academy of Pain Medicine