The Appalachian region continues to experience disproportionately higher opioid overdose rates and related fatalities. According to the most recent Center for Disease Control and Prevention, fully one-half of the 16 states with the highest overdose death rates are Appalachian states. West Virginia tops the list, and is joined by, in descending order, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, South Carolina, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. And although the CDC’s data shows a 4% overall overdose death rate decline, the statistics for Appalachia remain stubbornly high.
A Philadelphia-based non-profit foundation is combating the opioid addiction epidemic at the source by educating frontline allied health professionals on various aspects of the nation’s opioid crisis, specifically in Pennsylvania and the Appalachian region.
The Rothman Orthopaedic Institute Foundation for Opioid Research and Education (aka, Rothman Opioid Foundation) is a leader in opioid-related research and education. Thanks to a three-year grant from the federal Appalachian Regional Commission and support from the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Foundation has used its expertise to educate allied health professionals in Pennsylvania and the broader Appalachian region on proper opioid prescribing and use.
Rothman Opioid Foundation has created and distributes opioid education curricula at no cost for the 75 allied healthcare professional training programs, such as nurse practitioners and physician assistants, at collegiate institutions across the Appalachian Region. In particular, the Foundation has produced an 8-module online pain management curriculum designed to complement any training program focusing on evidence-based pain management using opioid-sparing strategies.
“Physician assistants and nurse practitioners are valued professionals and are often on the front line of primary care and pain management, and they will greatly benefit from formal training in opioid pharmacology, use, abuse, and safe evidenced-based pain management strategies,” says Dr. Asif Ilyas, MD, MBA, FACS, President of the Rothman Opioid Foundation in Philadelphia, PA. The Foundation has developed its curriculum as a prescriber-training program and is offering this eight-hour course free of charge. It is an online, self-paced certificate program designed to effortlessly complement students’ current curriculum in the clinical phases of their training and prescribers in practice. The targeted allied health professionals include nurse practitioners (NPs) and physicians’ assistants (PAs). The curriculum’s training includes, but not be limited to, opioid prescribing guidelines and indications, pain management alternatives to opioids, identification of potential opioid abuse, and intervention strategies. Additional educational programs will include online webinar series and in-person events when feasible. The curriculum is designed to complement the clinical phase of NP and PA training programs but can be implemented at any stage in training. While designed specifically for NP and PA students, the Rothman Opioid Foundation submitted the course material to a rigorous national accreditation process. As a result, the curriculum has been accredited for up to 13.5 Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit hours. It satisfies the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency Medication Assisted Treatment Education (DEA MATE) Act 8-hour training requirement on the treatment and management of patients with opioid or other substance use disorders. That means any licensed prescriber, physician, NP, or PA can obtain the required CME or DEA MATE opioid training through this vital course material. While most opioid-related education currently targets physicians, Ilyas says, NPs and PAs often interact more with individuals who are suffering from or are susceptible to opioid misuse.
“NPs and PAs have prescribing rights. They are vital physician extenders who need to be educated and recruited in the fight against the opioid addiction crisis across the Appalachian region,” says Ilyas. “This information will be tailored specifically to these allied health professionals to mitigate the rate of opioid addiction at the source by teaching proper opioid use and early symptoms of misuse to decrease the risk of opioid dependency and abuse. “The Rothman Opioid Foundation plans to partner with colleges and universities to distribute this information to as many healthcare students as possible in the Appalachian Region. This project’s ultimate goals are to ensure that PAs and NPs have the proper resources and education to advise on proper opioid use and its alternatives, recognize the initial symptoms of opioid misuse and abuse, and understand when and how to intervene when substance abuse occurs.“The opioid addiction crisis has taken a drastic toll on the Appalachian region and the country. To lower the chance of misuse and overdose in patients, it is imperative that our local frontline healthcare workers are adequately trained and educated in the pathophysiology of opioid addiction, and they have resources available to guide effective and safe pain management,” says Ilyas.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 130 Americans die every day from opioid overdose. This includes prescription and illicit opioids. Low-income and rural areas are among the most likely to experience the opioid addiction crisis’s adverse effects, as evidenced by data published by the Appalachian Regional Commission. Rural residents are at greater risk in part due to a lack of resources or healthcare services to address their addiction. These regions often lack accessible health services, especially those considered “specialized” services, such as addiction treatment.In addition, communities with a high uninsured population are at greater addiction risk as individuals without healthcare insurance are much less likely to receive treatment than those who are insured. These individuals are more likely to seek primary care through an urgent care setting, generally staffed by a physician extender (PAs and NPs).
As noted above, these allied health professionals have not always received the opioid-related education that their physician counterparts have.“Therefore, it is essential that professional education, designed to provide allied health professionals with the tools necessary to both manage pain in an evidenced-based opioid-sparing manner as well as screen for and identify addiction in the primary care setting visit, is available across Appalachia’s rural regions,” says Ilyas. Rothman Opioid Foundation is committed to providing the educational tools needed by our allied health professionals across the Appalachian region as they serve and treat on the front line of the opioid crisis. Information on the curriculum is found here: https://www.rothmanopioid.org/opioids-pain-management
About the Rothman Orthopaedic Institute Foundation for Opioid Research and Education.
The Rothman Orthopaedic Institute Foundation for Opioid Research & Education, www.rothmanopioid.org , is a non-profit 501c3 organization dedicated to raising awareness of the risks and benefits of opioids, educating physicians/physicians/policymakers on safe opioid use, and supporting research and education aimed to advance innovate pain management strategies that can decrease opioid use. The Foundation supports and advances the highest quality research on opioids and alternative pain modalities to yield findings that can better inform patients, physicians, and the greater healthcare community in the most evidenced-based pain management strategies.
