Two powerful tools to help us all combat the growing Opioid Crisis: the FDA’s new Opioid Analgesic Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) and Congress’s SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. FDA REMS In September, the FDA approved a new Opioid Analgesic Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) that [...]
In September, the FDA approved a new Opioid Analgesic Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) that expands upon the previous (2012) ER/LA Opioid REMS. The new REMS requires training also be made available on immediate-release opioid analgesics and offered to prescribers and nonprescribers alike who are involved in the [...]
A 2017 CDC Surveillance Report on Drug-Related Risks and Outcomes highlights some progress but much work yet to be done in curbing the opioid epidemic. According to the report, there has been a leveling off and declines in opioid prescribing rates since 2012 and high-dose prescribing rates since 2009. [...]
A growing list of entities—including private, state, and federal—are introducing prescription limit approaches as one tactic to combat the opioid epidemic. According to a press release on May 7, 2018, Walmart (and its membership-only warehouse Sam’s Club) pharmacies will soon “restrict initial acute opioid prescriptions to no more than [...]
On April 5, 2018, the U.S. Surgeon General issued the first public health advisory in 13 years. In short, he urges Americans to “Be prepared. Get naloxone. Save a life.” Naloxone is a potentially lifesaving medication that can temporarily reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. It is increasingly [...]
A recent CDC report examining emergency department data from July-September 2016 vs July-September 2017 shows a 30% increase in opioid overdose visits in the U.S. Such data can identify trends much sooner than waiting for data from death certificates. A closer analysis of 16 states that received funding to [...]
Federally, there are opioid policy declarations, funding allocations, commissions, and task forces. But states have purview over critical pieces of opioid policy impacting clinicians’ daily practice too. CO*RE maintains a State Information Hub providing speakers and learners attending live CO*RE activities with current individual state information on the following [...]
Despite having some of the world’s highest spending on medical care, a CDC report released in December showed that the U.S. experienced a decline in life expectancy for the second year in a row in 2016. The last time life expectancy dipped for one year was in 1993, during the [...]
In November 2017, the FDA released a report with analysis and recommendations for the use of continuing education (CE/CME) for Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS). But what is a REMS? And how is healthcare provider CE/CME related to it? This new FDA Feasibility Report addresses these questions. A Risk [...]
On November 29, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced three new initiatives from the Department of Justice to address the opioid crisis.First is the news of $12.2 million in federal grant funding for state and local law enforcement partners to combat illegal manufacturing and distribution of methamphetamine, heroin, and prescription opioids. [...]