MMS: Prescribers Embrace Courses
WALTHAM — The Massachusetts Medical Society recently announced that more than 5,000 individuals have taken one or more of its 18 continuing medical education courses on opioids and pain management, reflecting the physician group’s activity in one of its key elements in combatting the opioid epidemic in the state: prescriber education.
The society has been offering the courses free to all prescribers for more than year, and the society says the total number of its courses that have been completed exceeds 15,000. The society’s announcement follows Gov. Charlie Baker’s assessment that prescriber education is a key component in reversing the trend of opioid misuse.
“Physicians recognized early that prescriber education would be a critical step in addressing the opioid epidemic and that our society could make a significant contribution to the effort by sharing our resources,” said James S. Gessner, M.D., president of the society. “We are heartened by the response, and will continue to make these courses available at no charge as part of our continuing effort to improve prescribing practices and reduce the amount of drugs that can be abused or misused.”
Gessner said that in a span of 13 months, from May 2015 through June 20 of this year, a total of 15, 175 of the Society’s continuing medical education courses in pain management and safe opioid prescribing have been completed by 5,265 individuals. Of those individuals, 86{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} are physicians, and 66{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} practice in Massachusetts.
The society currently offers 18 opioid and pain management online courses to all prescribers. Among the contents of the courses are topics such as managing pain without overusing opioids, managing risk when prescribing narcotics, safe prescribing for chronic pain, screening and evaluation of substance abuse disorder, and alternative therapies to opioids. Gessner said that the courses are reviewed and updated regularly, to provide health professionals with the latest information on opioids and pain management.
The physicians’ group began offering its courses free to all prescribers in May of 2015 shortly after it issued its Opioid Therapy and Physician Communication Guidelines, a document that created prescribing guidelines for acute care and chronic pain.
The guidelines were developed with the most relevance for physicians and health professionals in primary care — those who prescribe the majority of pain medications — and were subsequently adopted by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine and incorporated into their comprehensive advisory to physicians on prescribing issues and practices.