The latest session of the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians’ (OAFP) Bite-Sized Learning program addresses the national overdose crisis and dives into the American Academy of Family Physicians’ new Chronic Pain Management Toolkit. Listen in for valuable resources, tips, and suggestions for implementing materials from the toolkit right away!
David O’Gurek, MD, FAAFP, a family physician from Pennsylvania and medical director of the TRUST Clinic, an office-based opioid treatment (OBOT) program for patients who have opioid use disorder, joins OAFP President Mike Sevilla, MD, FAAFP, for a dynamic discussion on the national overdose crisis and ways family physicians and their teams can utilize the toolkit for to improve patient outcomes.
During the session, Dr. O’Gurek shares, “Despite us seeing overdoses increasing in many places, we’re seeing overdoses related to prescription opioids decreasing…and some of that may in fact be related to opioid stewardship that’s put in place largely around the management of chronic pain…There is the notion that we need to make sure we’re delivering evidence-based care that appropriately treats chronic pain and doesn’t leave patients that are experiencing chronic pain out to dry just because of increased attention to not prescribing opioids.”
He continues, “The toolkit includes resources for how to evaluate chronic pain in the office with standardized tools to make sure we’re doing it in a comprehensive way. It also allows for the upfront discussion with patients on the notion that our goal cannot be and probably isn’t going to be that we’re going to get complete cessation of pain but we’re going to focus on functionality. The resources in this toolkit also help to understand what functionality the patient is looking for, what functionality they have lost, and for us to get a sense of how chronic pain is affecting their life.”
Watch the archived session today!
The AAFP Chronic Pain Toolkit, developed by the Academy with partial funding from a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant and published online in February, provides family physicians with an assortment of items to aid in the effective assessment, diagnosis and management of chronic pain.
The OAFP will host these learning sessions on Sunday evenings as we have speakers and topics. Members can join the conversation by logging on to OAFP’s Facebook page or YouTube channel to watch live. Live viewers can submit questions and comments throughout the session. The sessions will be 40 minutes or less!
- Sunday, April 11, at 8 p.m., “Orthopedic Surgeon, Hip & Knee Reconstruction,” with Graham Pallante, MD, from OrthopedicONE.
The learning sessions will be recorded and available on the OAFP’s Facebook page, YouTube channel, and the OAFP website for future viewing.
If you have suggestions for future learning sessions or have a story to tell yourself, please contact Kaitlin McGuffie.
This session was sponsored by the AAFP as part of a grant to disseminate the new toolkit.