The opioid crisis has touched all corners of our country, but the impact on our children is perhaps the most heartbreaking. Women using opioids during their pregnancy pass the drugs through the placenta and across the fetal blood-brain barrier. When birth abruptly shuts down the flow of the drug, the [...]

The White House continues to speak out on opioids. On October 26, 2017, the Trump Administration declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. This declaration “will enable HHS to accelerate temporary appointments of specialized personnel to address the emergency (pending any funding needed); work with DEA to expand [...]

CO*RE has reached many prescribers, but who else may need this education? From its first activity in 2013 through September 2017, the Collaborative for REMS Education (CO*RE) has educated 286,293 learners via 616 CE/CME activities. These learners, many of whom are affiliated with CO*RE’s partner organizations, include primary care [...]

"Once we were told we weren’t addressing our patients’ pain well enough, now we’re told we’re prescribing too much…" - Dr. David Bazzo (Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at UC, San Diego School of Medicine) shares his story on safe prescribing. Learn about safe opioid prescribing in a CO*RE [...]

How do the recent hurricanes and aftermath in U.S. states and territories affect the opioid epidemic? Here are a few ways these topics intersect. Hurricane damage to Puerto Rico in particular may impact the pharmaceutical industry, as the territory houses nearly 50 pharmaceutical plants, and pharmaceuticals represented 72% of [...]

New, sobering CDC data summarized in a September 2, 2017 New York Times article demonstrate an exponential increase in fentanyl and fentanyl analogue deaths, reaching 20,100 in 2016 (see graph). The Times reports that these provisional data represent a 540% increase over three years and are greater than previously estimated. [...]