Practice Management
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first clinical test that uses DNA to assess potential risk of opioid use disorder in certain patients, according to an FDA announcement. The new AvertD test is intended as a screening tool clinicians can use before prescribing oral opioid drugs in adult patients who are being considered for short-term treatment of acute pain and who have not previously used oral opioid pain medications. To administer at …
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The episodic nature of the urgent care setting makes it a popular target for opioid addicts “doctor shopping” for someone new to write prescriptions. As such, urgent care clinicians must remain always-vigilant for ways to help stem rampant opioid addiction. One tool that’s built into the urgent care electronic medical record systems (eprescribing) can be a valuable weapon in that fight. Where a paper script—or, worse, a whole pad—can be lost or stolen, an electronic …
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With the opioid addiction crisis hanging over their heads, physicians are constantly weighing the risk vs benefit of prescribing narcotics for patients in extreme pain. This can be especially tough when treating younger patients who’ve sustained an injury, such as those increasingly common in youth sports. Many physicians who specialize in sports medicine have started using a multimodal approach that employs counseling, physical therapy, and even nerve blocks. Some states have launched efforts (and even …
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Nearly 2 million Americans have an opioid use disorder. While there are many causative factors behind that staggering number, Steven J. Stack, MD, president of the American Medical Association, says “the opioid epidemic…far too often has started from a prescription pad.” In an open letter to all physicians in every setting across the country, Stack proposed seven steps physicians can take to help reverse the tide: “Avoid initiating opioids for new patients with chronic noncancer …
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