ASHP Joins National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Countering the US Opioid Epidemic

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) today announced that it is a sponsoring member of the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Countering the US Opioid Epidemic. The mission of the Action Collaborative is to convene and catalyze public, private, and nonprofit stakeholders to develop, curate, and disseminate multisector solutions designed to reduce opioid misuse and improve outcomes for individuals, families, and communities affected by the opioid crisis.

ASHP joins the following distinguished organizations as a sponsor of the Action Collaborative:

• Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education
• Aetna
• American Hospital Association
• American Medical Association
• Arnold Ventures
• Association of American Medical Colleges
• CDC
• CDC Foundation
• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
• Council of Medical Specialty Societies
• Federation of State Medical Boards
• HCA Healthcare
• National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

“The devastation of the opioid epidemic on families and communities across our nation cannot be overstated,” said ASHP CEO Paul W. Abramowitz, PharmD, ScD (Hon), FASHP, in a prepared statement. “As the medication-use experts, pharmacists are uniquely qualified as key members of the patient care team to help treat patients who are addicted to opioids, ensure that patients get the pain management they need, and minimize the risk of addiction by enhancing the use of nonopioid therapies. We are honored to serve as one of the 16 sponsoring members of this important collaborative and look forward to contributing the skills and expertise of ASHP’s nearly 50,000 members to identify enduring solutions.”

Specific areas of commitment from ASHP to the Action Collaborative include:

• Creation and dissemination of patient and prescriber education on pain management and opioid abuse mitigation best practices.
• Enhanced patient access to evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder through increased utilization of pharmacists on the health care team.
• Standardization of a framework for pain stewardship to coordinate pain management, opioid prescribing, and use of nonopioid therapies.
• Coordination of care among patients, caregivers, and health care professionals through the use of standardized patient-specific pain management and substance use disorder treatment plans.
• Improvement of interoperability, artificial intelligence, and clinical decision support in health care information systems.
• Identification of performance and quality metrics to assess impact.
• Stimulating research on pain and opioid use disorders and their respective pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatments.
• Advancing efforts to prepare the pharmacy workforce through pharmacy education and professional development programs.

Reference

ASHP Joins National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic as a Sponsoring Member [news release]. Bethesda, MD; April 25, 2019: ASHP website. https://www.ashp.org/news/2019/04/25/nam-opioid-collaborative. Accessed April 25, 2019.