Schedule (subject to change)
7:00a - 7:30a - Registration and Exhibits
Coffee will be served.
7:30a - 8:30a - Update: How the CDC Guidelines Are Impacting Patient Care
UAN 0530-0000-18-071-L01-P
AANP Rx Hours 0.0
Course Description
On September 16, 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), hosted a semi-public webinar where they revealed a draft of their twelve (12) prescribing guidelines for chronic pain. After concerns over the limited amount of participation was raised by the pain community, and following a congressional inquiry, the CDC offered an extended open comment period. In March 2016 the CDC's final guidelines were released and although voluntary, many states and regulatory authorities have adopted them with little recognition of the limitations stated in the guideline itself. This presentation will examine the impact of the guidelines on patient care, health care providers, and unintentional overdose.
Stephen J. Ziegler, PhD, JD
8:30a - 9:30a - Product, Disease Awareness, Medical Information Program*
Breakfast will be served.
Sponsored by PERNIX Therapeutics, David Ratzman, MD
9:30a - 9:40a - Break & Exhibits
9:40a - 10:40a - A Comedy of Errors: Methadone and Buprenorphine
UAN 0530-0000-18-032-L01-P
AANP Rx Hours 1.0
Course Description
The 3 most contentious, poorly understood analgesics today are methadone, cannabis, and buprenorphine. This fast paced workshop will equip practitioners with immediately implementable practical tips regarding when and how to use these analgesics, including dosage formulations, routes of delivery, appropriate use in therapy, drug interactions, dosage titration (both up and down), opioid conversion calculations, and more. All discussions will be aimed at enhancing clinical, economic, and humanistic outcomes on the individual patient and health system level.
Douglas L. Gourlay, MD, MSc, FRCPC, FASAM
10:40a - 11:40a - Get Your Specimens in Order: The Importance of Individualized Test Orders and Timely Test Utilization
UAN 0530-0000-18-039-L01-P
AANP Rx Hours 0.0
Course Description
The government has ramped up its efforts in 2018 to connect claims of inappropriate opioid prescribing to financial gain, including gain from urine drug testing. While most physicians do not have a financial interest in a clinical laboratory, the government's decision to highlight an opioid prescriber's failure to timely utilize drug test results is significant, and suggests the government is looking at other factors tied to medical decision making. Thus, prescribers should pay attention to licensing board, payor, and professional society guidance on ordering drug tests and how to use drug test results when treatment involves opioid prescribing.
Attendees will learn how to identify the core elements of medical necessity and document an individualized testing plan for each patient. This course will cover critical areas of medical record documentation, including: (a) the decision to drug test, when and how often; (b) determining which drugs to test and why; and (c) how to coordinate timely review and use of drug test results in connection with the patient's plan of care. Attendees will gain additional insight into these issues through position papers published in late 2017 and early 2018, by the American Academy of Pain Medicine and the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. The overall goal of the course is to assist prescribers in their quest to provide quality pain care to their patients and to document their rationale for drug testing and their treatment decisions.
Jennifer Bolen, JD
11:40a - 12:00p - Faculty Q&A
12:00p - 12:10p - Break & Exhibits
12:10p - 1:10p - Product, Disease Awareness, Medical Information Program*
Lunch will be served.
Sponsored by Salix Pharmaceuticals, Gerald Sacks, MD
1:10p - 2:00p - Measure for Measure: Prescribing Guidelines, Rules, and Regulations
UAN 0530-0000-18-041-L01-P
AANP Rx Hours 0.0
Course Description
Washington was one of the first states to legislate prescribing rules for the treatment of chronic pain, a unique model which relied on the use of a dosage trigger and the necessity to calculate morphine equivalency. Following Washington's lead, other states and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc) have created their own guidelines and rules that not only vary widely but are often in conflict with each other. This presentation will discuss the recent history of prescribing guidelines, their diffusion across the United States, and their potential impact on medical practice and the treatment of pain.
Stephen J. Ziegler, PhD, JD
2:00p - 2:10p - Break & Exhibits
2:10p - 3:00p - Cannabis vs Cannabinoids: The Politics of Medical Marijuana
UAN 0530-0000-18-034-L01-P
AANP Rx Hours 0.0
Course Description
The subject of the medical use of cannabinoids has become an extremely hot topic. Unfortunately, there has been a tendency to equate medical cannabinoids with another very contentious topic: medical marijuana. In this presentation, the distinction between medical cannabinoids and medical cannabis will be explored. Specifically, the challenges facing prescribers who are being asked to prescribe medical marijuana will be examined
Douglas L. Gourlay, MD, MSc, FRCPC, FASAM
3:00p - 3:50p - Embrace Changes and Prevent Overdose: A Basic Blueprint for Legal Risk Mitigation and Response
UAN 0530-0000-18-045-L01-P
AANP Rx Hours 0.0
Course Description
Overdose--a small word that packs a major punch, and a big reason for many recent legal regulatory changes in controlled substance prescribing and pain management. Too many physicians and allied healthcare practitioners are caught unawares by the legal issues surrounding overdose events, fatal and nonfatal. Often, prescribers are the last to learn about an overdose event and, worse yet, fail to take action once notified. Through a series of case examples, attendees will learn how to develop and implement overdose event policies and protocols. Attendees will receive copies of sample policies and protocols and learn how to tailor them to their respective practices and state licensing board framework. Professional licensing board and criminal cases involving overdose events do not usually end well for the prescriber, but there is much the prescriber can do proactively to signal his/her intent to get things right. While prescribers cannot control what their patients do once they leave the medical office, they are responsible for establishing a safe framework for opioid prescribing, including a proper response when something goes wrong.
Jennifer Bolen, JD
*Not certified for credit.
