Center pain initiative enters next phase

The Center’s National Balanced Pain Policy Initiativeis entering Phase II.

Phase I of the initiative focused on research to identify administrative and criminal actions taken against physicians for improperly prescribing pain medications. Phase IIwill bring together various parties to review Phase I research findings and identify effective ways to put these findings into practice.
 
On November 19 and 20 in Dallas, Center staff will lead sessions featuring representatives of national organizations of district attorneys, drug investigators, attorneys general and state medical boards. The goal is to produce a set of principles for investigating and prosecuting physicians for improperly prescribing painkilling drugs, in ways that will help to achieve a balance between the need to prevent criminal diversion of these drugs, while assuring that doctors will be willing to issue legitimate prescriptions for such drugs without fear of unwarranted investigation or prosecution. These principles will be shared with participating organizations and published in a criminal law journal.

In addition, the initiative’s working group will meet to review the status of the database the Center developed to study this issue, and will determine strategies for communicating the results its recent research regarding physicians involved in such cases to key constituencies. Ultimately, initiative’s objectives are for chronic-pain patients to receive more and better pain treatment, physicians to understand their actual risk of being investigated for improperly prescribing pain medications, and for government to meet its obligations for preventing abuse of controlled substances.

The initiative is funded by the Greenwall Foundation, the Mayday Fund, the Cloud L. Cray Foundation and the United Health Foundation.

Update: November 6, 2007