The Proliferation of Opioid and Pain Management Guidelines

Jeffrey Fudin, PharmD, DAIPM, FASHP, FFSMB, CEO of Remitigate, discusses how opioid and pain management guidelines have evolved. This video was filmed at the 2019 ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exhibition in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Jeffrey Fudin, PharmD, DAIPM, FASHP, FFSMB: Opioid guidelines with respect to pain management have changed considerably over the last few years. It seems like everybody is jumping on the bandwagon. There’s no shortage of government guidelines, from the CDC to SAMHSA [Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration] to HHS, which was the most recent. And now CMS came out with guidelines. So we have a lot of government agencies that are basically putting out various guidelines and recommendations. I’d say more recommendations, but they’re not law. And so, in addition to the government agencies, there are a number of people or groups in the private sector who have also wrapped their arms around guidelines, and that includes community pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens, and others. And in addition to that, the state boards of medicine, state boards of pharmacy in some cases, the Bureau of Narcotics, and sometimes collaboratively, they have come up with guidelines.