BU Medical School Wins National Award for Safe and Competent Opioid Prescribing Trainings
Program has successfully educated more than 10,500 clinicians
Boston University School of Medicine has won a 2014 National High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) award for Outstanding Prevention Effort for its Safe and Competent Opioid Prescribing Education (SCOPE of Pain) program.
SCOPE of Pain, a series of continuing medical/nursing education trainings on safe opioid prescribing for chronic pain, launched in 2013. In less than two years, the program has successfully educated more than 10,500 clinicians through online and live programs convened throughout the country in collaboration with federal, state, and local partners, including the New England HIDTA.
Chronic pain affects approximately 100 million in the US, making it one of the most common reasons for patients to seek medical care. Unfortunately, pain management, including the appropriate use of opioids, is not well covered in medical training. Moreover, there are inadequate numbers of pain management specialists to help generalist clinicians manage these patients.
“Clinicians who prescribe opioid analgesics to treat chronic pain are in a key position to balance the benefits and risks of chronic opioid therapy,” says Daniel Alford, dean of continuing medical education and associate professor of medicine at BU School of Medicine, and director of SCOPE of Pain. “However, they struggle with the goal of adequately managing their patients’ chronic pain while confronting the risks associated with prescription opioid misuse and abuse. We are honored that SCOPE of Pain has been recognized to address this pressing need.”
Created by Congress in 1988, the HIDTA program serves as a catalyst for coordination among federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies operating in areas determined to be critical drug trafficking regions of the United States. Law enforcement organizations working within HIDTAs assess drug-trafficking issues and design specific initiatives to decrease the production, transportation, distribution, and chronic use of drugs and money laundering. There are currently 28 HIDTAs located in 48 states, as well as in Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and the District of Columbia.
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