If a patient develops an addiction to opoids, or long-lasting pain medication, they will most likely have to meet with a doctor certified to administer Suboxone, an opoid dependence medication.
However, Melinda Ford, an assistant professor of family medicine at Ohio University’s Heritage College of Osteopathic medicine and one of the few doctors in the Southeast Ohio region who can prescribe Suboxone, can only prescribe it to 100 patients at a time—and she currently has a waiting list of 20 patients.
In order to combat the abuse of pain medication prevalent in Southeast Ohio, OU-HCOM’s Area Health Education Center is hosting a free continuing education course on safe use of opoid drugs for physicians and health care providers.
The course, which will take place Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.
at the Ohio University Inn and Conference Center, will be taught by Ford and Theodore Parran, a clinical professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and a specialist in managing chemical dependency.
The course will be targeted toward physicians and health care providers, but Ford said the presentation will be understandable for most experience-levels of health care providers.
Opoids, such as Vicodin, morphine and oxycontin, can be used to treat chronic pain, but they have extremely addictive properties, so physicians must be educated on the proper administration and side effects, Ford said.
“This was put in place because the Food and Drug Adminstration realized there was a lot of abuse of pain medicines going on, and that physicians and other healthcare providers really need to be educated about especially using the long-acting pain medicines,” Ford said.
In the past, the Area Health Education Center, a national organization promoting education on maintaining a healthy lifestyle, has held similar free courses for physicians on subjects such as treating addictions in pregnant women, Ford said.
“The goal of this program is to share important information with health care providers to reduce serious adverse outcomes resulting from inappropriate prescribing, misuse and abuse of ER/LA opioids while maintaining patient access to pain medications,” said Kathy Trace, director of the Area Health Education Center through OU-HCOM in an email. “We are delighted to bring this program to southeast Ohio.”
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