Government-funded online resources have been launched to stem the tide of painkiller misuse.

Clinicians can take advantage of 2 new online CME resources to improve their opioid prescribing practices and develop effective strategies for monitoring and managing patient opioid use.
 
Launched on October 1 by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), this educational initiative is part of a White House effort to address the prescription drug abuse epidemic in the United States. The Administration’s goal is to reduce prescription drug abuse by 15% by 2015.
 
Using test-and-teach cases, the ONDCP-funded courses are modeled on a grand rounds approach. They include:

• Safe Prescribing for Pain (1.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™)
• Managing Pain Patients Who Abuse Prescription Drugs (1.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™)

 “These CME courses provide practical guidance for clinicians in screening their pain patients for risk factors before prescribing. They also help medical professionals identify when patients are abusing their medications, using videos that model effective communication about sensitive issues, without losing sight of addressing pain,” said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, MD.
 
Physicians and nurses can obtain CME credit by participating in the courses on the Medscape Web site. The training modules will also be available on the NIDA Web site, where they can be adapted for use in the syllabi of academic medical schools.