The Office of Interdisciplinary Education in the Health Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh is proud to provide the latest training in the responsible prescribing of pain medications, opioid use disorder and related topics. In conjunction with UPMC, we have put together a premiere faculty group discussing the key issues clinicians need to know regarding these critical topics.
With the loosening of restrictions this year on prescribing buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder, providers seeking the United States Drug Enforcement Administration registration must complete an 8-hour training course in safer opioid prescribing and substance use management. This online training helps practitioners at UPMC, alumni, students and other interested parties across multiple disciplines fulfill those requirements and is part of Pitt’s ongoing effort to curb the opioid epidemic.
As a surgeon and professor at Pitt and UPMC, I have treated thousands of patients with various procedures. I have also witnessed the evolution in the use of opioids to manage surgical pain. Not long ago, prescribing opioids for something as basic as outpatient surgery under local anesthesia was routine. Now we know that is a risky approach that can lead to addiction.
In 2019, when I was dean of the Pitt School of Dental Medicine, we became the first dental school in the nation to implement opioid-free pain management guidelines for most procedures performed in our clinics. I developed a Pain Care Pledge as part of our commitment to training health care providers in responsible pain management.
My colleague Payel Jhoom Roy and I have assembled an interprofessional training program from a genuinely world-class faculty focused on the opioid crisis and what we, as concerned professionals, can do about it. This free series of lectures provides high-level training for a variety of practicing clinicians, students and all interested individuals in areas like responsible pain management with a non-opioid approach, screening and treatment for opioid use disorder, pain management in pregnancy and much more.
As clinicians, what have we learned? There are ways to stop addiction before it starts, and we have a responsibility to fight this crisis. Also, keeping clinicians in touch with the latest treatment strategies is critical. We must train our future clinicians in the very best management strategies. This training provides solutions for you to consider when doing your part to help stem the tide of the opioid crisis.
The social tornado of the opioid crisis continues to damage families, communities and businesses. The opioid epidemic accounted for $35 billion in health care costs and $92 billion in lost productivity, according to an August 2021 Pew Charitable Trusts report. It has affected certain states more harshly, with the highest per capita cost of opioid use disorder and fatal opioid overdoses being West Virginia ($7,247) and Ohio ($6,226). On average, nearly 15 Pennsylvanians died from a drug overdose every day in 2021.
Our country’s drug epidemic is costly and personal for far too many people, including the nearly 107,000 people who died of overdoses in 2022 and the untold number of family and friends who loved them. There must be a concerted effort with a singular goal in mind: turning the tide of opioid addiction.
–BJ Costello
Click the link below to register for this educational material and obtain continuing education credit.
Bernard J. Costello, professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery, School of Dental Medicine, and Associate Vice Chancellor for Interdisciplinary Education, is Chief of Pediatric Maxillofacial Surgery at UPMC Children’s Hospital and former president of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, American Academy of Craniomaxillofacial Surgeons, and American Cleft-Palate Craniofacial Association.