NEW LOCATION: HANOVER AB

Moderator: John L. Eadie, MPA, Coordinator, Public Health and Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Project, National Emerging Threat Initiative, A National HIDTA Initiative, and Member, National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit Advisory Board

CE Certified By: AMA,AAFP,ACPE,ADA,ANCC,GA Bar,GA POST

This presentation about the California prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) — which is known as CURES — is designed to deliver useful information to participants from all 50 states. Presenters will discuss CURES in a national context and draw from literature that examines multiple states’ PDMPs. They will discuss prescriber use of CURES and the value of CURES to law enforcement and dispensers.

California maintains CURES as one method to mitigate harms caused by opioids. Use of this system by physicians has been shown to decrease their writing of opioid medication prescriptions, potentially reducing the amount of fatal overdoses of both Rx opioids and heroin. Additional benefits of PDMP utilization include physicians being more aware of the criminal act of patient “doctor shopping,” potentially irresponsible prescribing by fellow healthcare professionals, or other forms of pharmaceutical diversion such as fraud and forgeries.

This presentation will highlight findings from an academic project that aimed to understand physician underutilization of CURES and evaluate an opioid reduction workgroup’s progress toward its goal of 100% of physicians in its geographical area using CURES. The project identified a performance gap and offered solutions to close this gap, as well as an evaluation plan to assess solution effectiveness. This project will be presented in the context of the workgroup’s diverse efforts at reducing death by overdose through a multi-disciplinary approach involving key stakeholders from behavioral health, public health, law enforcement, education and the community.

UPON COMPLETION OF THIS COURSE, PARTICIPANTS WILL BE ABLE TO:
- Describe how, when and why physicians in the geographical area of the workgroup were not using CURES.
- Identify the knowledge, motivation and organizational influences facilitating or impeding physicians’ utilization of the CURES database.
- Outline the recommendations for practice of physicians in the areas of knowledge, motivation and organizational resources.