Opioid

MAUI, HAWAII — Clinicians should avoid prescribing opioids when treating venous leg ulcers, a speaker at Maui Derm said.

Default electronic medical record settings for opioid dispense quantities positively influenced prescriptions at ED discharge, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The last decade of health care has seen incredible changes, beginning with the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The law has been challenged, altered and amended numerous times. Yet, it still has many unsettled issues and the cost of health care continues to increase.

Researchers found that using an intestinal ultrasound to assess bowel wall thickness can help monitor treatment response in patients with ulcerative colitis. This was one of the top stories in gastroenterology last week.

High daily opioid dosages are associated with a heightened risk for overdose in adolescents and young adults, according to results from a study published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Opioid overdose mortality rates among working-age adults increased 85% in manufacturing counties in the 5 years after an automotive assembly plant closed vs. areas that did not experience that type of “economically significant event,” researchers reported in JAMA Internal Medicine.

NEPTUNE, N.J. – Patients should not needlessly suffer, but optometrists have tools to help them first determine whether a patient is “doctor shopping,” said Tracy Offerdahl, PharmD, RPh, FAAO, here at a New Jersey Academy of Optometry continuing education event.

WASHINGTON — Physicians from across the country spoke about their hospitals’ experiences and approaches to combating the opioid epidemic at a panel at the U.S. News & World Report Annual Healthcare of Tomorrow Conference.

A recent study suggests that less than a quarter of patients on chronic opioid therapy for noncancer pain are tapered off opioids, and another study found that only 35% of patients are able to successfully do so.

Recently, two Ohio counties settled with opioid distributors AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson for $215 million in cash just hours before going to trial. A fourth defendant, Teva, agreed to pay $20 million and provide $25 million worth of the opioid substitution therapy buprenorphine, according to the Los Angeles Times. Lawyers and doctors who are following the lawsuit said the settlements will fall well short of resolving the opioid epidemic.