Let’s Get on the Same Prescribing Page:

This presentation will focus on the development of a clinical decision tool to standardize opioid prescribing for patients with sickle cell disease.

Pain is the hallmark symptom of sickle cell disease, which is often managed by hematologists or primary care physicians. Currently, there is no clinical decision tool or any type of standardization regarding opioid prescribing among these patients.

The Management of Sickle Cell Disease guidelines, published in JAMA in 2014, states that there is little evidence related specifically to chronic pain is those with sickle cell disease and most of the recommendations were adapted from general pain guidelines.

Therefore, opioid prescribing is not consistent regarding management of chronic pain in this patient population, potentially due to a lack of standardized prescribing practices. In order to mitigate this absence, this pilot project aims to create an opioid prescribing protocol for use in patients with sickle cell disease who are prescribed or may be prescribed opioid therapy.

The research was funded and began in January 2019 to develop the clinical decision tool. The tool was implemented in April 2019 and evaluated. The goal is to continue implementation and potentially expand to other sites that treat sickle cell or other chronic pain patients.