Physician Groups Band Together to Address Opioid Crisis

WALTHAM — Led by the American Medical Assoc., (AMA), with participation from the Mass. Medical Society (MMS), the nation’s physicians have announced a collaborative effort to address the growing problem of opioid abuse.

The nation’s largest physician organization said its AMA Task Force to Reduce Opioid Abuse — comprised of 27 physician organizations including the AMA, the American Osteopathic Assoc., 17 specialty and seven state medical societies, and the American Dental Association — has been formed to identify and implement best practices to engage physicians in curbing opioid abuse.

The Task Force recently announced the first of several recommendations to reduce this public-health crisis facing the country.

“This is a welcome development in the fight against opioid abuse,” said Dr. Dennis Dimitri, president of the MMS. “It will combine the strengths of the nation’s major medical organizations, bring greater and more constant attention to this public-health crisis, and supplement specific approaches already underway by Massachusetts elected officials and physicians.”

AMA board chair-elect Dr. Patrice Harris said the AMA Task Force is “committed to working long-term on a multi-pronged, comprehensive public health approach to end opioid abuse in America.” The initial approach of the collaboration will focus on several areas: prescription-monitoring programs, physician education on safe prescribing of opioids, assessment and treatment of pain, reducing the stigma of substance-use disorder, enhancing access to treatment, and expanding access to the life-saving drug naloxone.

“The efforts of the task force can only add strength to our efforts in the Commonwealth,” Dimitri said, adding that the AMA’s effort is benefiting from the expertise of its Massachusetts representative, Dr. Richard Pieters, immediate past president of the MMS. Pieters is a radiation oncologist at UMass Memorial Health Care, board-certified in hospice and palliative care, and a cancer pain specialist.

In a commentary on the society’s website, Dimitri said the Commonwealth has taken substantial strides in addressing the epidemic in the state. He noted that the governor and attorney general have made the crisis a top priority, and the Governor’s Opioid Addiction Working Group has issued an action plan with a number of recommendations that are in the process of being implemented.

Dimitri said the group’s recommendations — among them improving the prescription-monitoring program, reducing stigma by reframing addiction as a medical disease, implementing treatment programs, and making naloxone more accessible — have been supported by Massachusetts physicians for some time.

For its part, Dimitri said the Mass. Medical Society has reached out to both prescribers and patients to educate them about safe prescribing and proper storage and disposal of prescription medications.

He called particular attention to the society’s efforts in educating prescribers. Since all of the organization’s continuing-medical-education courses on opioids and pain management free to all prescribers in late May, nearly 2,500 health professionals have taken one or more courses. To meet demand, the society added nine courses on the topics since last year, when only 400 completed such courses in a comparable period.

Dimitri also cited improvements, now in progress, to the state’s prescription-monitoring program that will make it easier for physicians to use. One key change is reducing the time for pharmacy reporting of opioid prescriptions from two weeks to 24 hours, an action that should reduce the practice of doctor shopping by patients.

Meanwhile, the MMS, along with Boston radio station 98.5 FM the Sports Hub and New England Patriots safety Devin McCourty, will team up this fall to educate the public about steps they can take to help bring the opioid overdose epidemic under control.

The MMS is sponsoring messages on the 11 Massachusetts affiliates in the Sports Hub’s radio network, informing listeners about the safe storage and proper disposal of prescription medications. The messages, heard during every game of New England’s preseason and regular season, feature McCourty and Dimitri.

“Prescription drug abuse is a widespread problem,” McCourty said. “Therefore, I felt it was important to talk about the need for proper storage and disposal of these medications. By safeguarding your meds, you can prevent kids from accessing these drugs at home.”