CO*RE 2024-2025 CURRICULUM

The CO*RE 2024-2025 curriculum, created by renowned pain management and addiction experts, offers a comprehensive approach to opioid prescribing. It addresses pain pathophysiology, patient assessment, patient-centered treatment plans, non-pharmaceutical options, opioid management, patient education, and opioid use disorder.

This program meets many states’ requirements for opioid education and is fully compliant with the Opioid Analgesic Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) education requirement (“Blueprint”), issued by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration in October 2023. As of June 27, 2023, DEA registrants are to have completed a total of at least 8 hours of training on opioid or other substance use disorders. These activities meets the criteria outlined by SAMHSA to count toward the MATE Act training requirement.

This education can be delivered at your next conference or meeting. Please email JerriDavis@core-rems.org for additional information. You can select a course option that fits the needs of your audience. We offer two types of live curriculum and an online podcast.

CO*RE Live Didactic Curriculum
Our didactic learning session is designed to provide a comprehensive and structured approach to pain management education. This session meticulously follows the FDA Blueprint, ensuring that participants receive the most up-to-date and evidence-based knowledge.
State Slides Library can enhance this education.

CO*RE Live Case-Based Curriculum
Our case-based session delivers a real-world educational experience through a series of cases and supporting content mapped to segments of the FDA Blueprint. This allows faculty to teach application of concepts, fostering an engaging approach to pain management education.
State Slides Library can enhance this education.

CO*RE Podcast
This series features three 45-minute podcasts aimed at empowering clinicians to manage opioid analgesics confidently. The series covers patient assessment, therapy initiation, modification, discontinuation, and patient counseling.

STATE SLIDES LIBRARY

Wherever CO*RE provides education in the U.S., our partners can offer learners timely, state-specific information. Our State Slides Library includes 51 concise PowerPoint decks, one for each state plus the District of Columbia. These decks summarize relevant state statistics, education requirements, PDMP status, regulations, and legislation impacting prescribers. Presenting this state-specific information at our live meetings, in particular, helps “bring the message home” to the learner, ensuring they receive the most relevant and applicable knowledge for their practice.

GUIDING DOCUMENTS

CO*RE’s OA REMS education is designed to align with the FDA’s Opioid Analgesic REMS Education Blueprint for Healthcare Providers Involved in the Treatment and Monitoring of Patients with Pain, issued in October 2023. This education aims to reduce unnecessary and inappropriate opioid exposure by ensuring healthcare providers are well-informed about proper prescribing guidelines, identifying patient abuse, and treating opioid use disorders. For more details, please refer to the FDA Blueprint.

We also incorporated the CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain — United States, 2022 into our education. This clinical practice guideline is intended to improve communication between clinicians and patients about the benefits and risks of pain treatments, including opioid therapy; improve the effectiveness and safety of pain treatment; mitigate pain; improve function and quality of life for patients with pain; and reduce risks associated with opioid pain therapy, including opioid use disorder, overdose, and death. For more details, please refer to the CDC Guideline.

RESULTS

Since 2013, CO*RE has delivered in-person and online Opioid Analgesics REMS education to more than 452,000 clinicians via more than 700 CE/CME activities (through December 2022).

CO*RE uses a Common Outcomes Framework to align the FDA Blueprint with CO*RE learning objectives, content, and assessment questions. This makes for consistency across courses and allows for more robust data analysis on educational impact.

CO*RE learner data is compiled in a custom dashboard, which allows us to identify patterns and look for additional gaps to be addressed. For example, here are key learnings from our 2019 Outcomes Report:

  • Learners at in-person live activities scored higher on posttests than learners in online activities
  • Learners with individual DEA registration scored higher than those with institutional DEA or none
  • Learners in our Adaptive Learning course demonstrated 36% improvement in confidence in opioid rotation and in using the ORT OUD
  • Learners reported making more changes after the education than they had planned (see figure)
CO*RE is launching a new series of 45 educational programs in 2022-2023

CO*RE is launching a new series of 45 educational programs in 2022-2023, and will continue with our robust data analysis.

TESTIMONIALS

Here’s what people have to say about their experience:

“The best CE I have completed so far. Thank you. Very clear but also very thorough – which is a tough balance to achieve. Thanks!”

– Nurse Practitioner

“I like the videos of other healthcare providers having the difficult conversation with a patient – good modeling!”

– Physician

“One of the best activities of this sort I’ve seen.”

– Physician

“I was so encouraged by what I heard that I intend to overcome my own discouragement and make time to work this into my treatment of pain patients. I will re-evaluate my decision to stop treating chronic pain.”

– New Mexico Clinician

FUNDER INFORMATION

This educational activity is supported by an independent educational grant from the Opioid Analgesic REMS Program Companies (RPC). This activity is intended to be fully compliant with the Opioid Analgesic REMS education requirements issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Click here for more information about the Opioid Analgesics REMS.