DAILY LOBO new mexico
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
MONDAY January 26, 2015 | Volume 119 | Issue 88
HSC pain center lowers state opioid abuse By Jonathan Baca With the help of a Health Sciences Center research group, New Mexico’s accidental opioid overdose deaths and addictions are down for the first time in years. A new study released by the UNM Pain Consultation and Treatment Center shows that a new state-mandated training program for doctors and clinicians is resulting in significantly fewer opioid painkillers being prescribed to patients, which has led to less addiction and fewer overdoses. Dr. Joanna Katzman, associate professor of neurology and director of the UNM Pain Center, led the team that developed the training program. Katzman was also integral in writing the legislation, Senate Bill 215, which passed the New Mexico Legislature in 2012 and created the mandatory training program. Since then, Katzman and the UNM Pain Center, with the help of other organizations around the state, have trained more than 3,000 doctors and clinicians on better, safer ways to treat serious and chronic pain. “When you try to balance the treatment of chronic pain, which sometimes necessitates opioids, with the public health crisis of unintentional opiate overdose deaths, it becomes a tricky management issue,” Katzman said. “We wanted to teach clinicians how to take care of
their patients in pain, and how to hopefully prevent these unintentional opioid overdose deaths.” Katzman, who has worked in pain management for years, described the difficulty of balancing the real need for chronic pain management with the dangers of prescribing highly addictive, powerful and often dangerous narcotics. Chronic pain is a huge issue affecting 100 million Americans — more than diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer combined, Katzman said. “Pain trumps everything; it’s still the leading cause of disability in the country,” she said. “It costs the United States $635 billion in terms of productivity and medical costs.” At the same time, New Mexico has been at the top of the list for opiate addiction and overdose deaths for years. “The issue of unintentional opioid overdose deaths has been a big problem in New Mexico for many years,” Katzman said. “New Mexico has led the country in problems with both heroin and prescription opioid deaths for a decade, and it’s only been a couple of years since we’ve fallen to number two.” The problem has reached near epidemic levels in Bernalillo County, where one in 20 teenagers is now abusing heroin and prescription opiates, Katzman said. The problem of over-
Source: UNM Pain Center
prescribing opioid painkillers has been growing, notably with the well-documented explosion of addiction and suicide among veterans being treated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Other states have attempted to tackle the problem of prescription opiate addiction in a number
of ways, often with mandated dosing thresholds — meaning doctors and clinicians were only allowed to prescribe a certain amount of total milligrams per year. This situation led some doctors to feel too restrained in the way they treated their patients, Katzman said. So Katzman and others work-
ing on the state Senate bill decided to go in a different direction: mandating ongoing pain management training instead. “What we were able to do was provide an education, not create fear. That was a really good result of
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Opioids page 2
Volunteer EMS program launches on campus By David Lynch
MedBow, a branch of the UNM Center for Disaster Medicine, is preparing to jumpstart the University’s first student-run emergency medical services team, which will consist of student volunteers responding to 911 calls on campus. UNM EMS Chief Kane Darling said the group’s main goal is timely and efficient medical response to 911 calls — essentially being an extra set of eyes for UNM police. “Our mission is dedicating ourselves to providing quality emergency medical care to all students, faculty, staff and visitors to the UNM campus,” Darling said. In addition to responding to medical emergencies on campus, Darling said UNM EMS will be providing standby medical coverage for certain University events. MedBow already provides coverage for larger events such as football and basketball games, but Darling said UNM EMS would be on standby at smaller events including intramural sports, fraternity and sorority events, and move-in days. “Those events that might not have the funding for MedBow or another big group to come in and provide medical care, we could probably help out with them,” he said. The preliminary plan calls for two-person teams on bicycles patrolling campus from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in four-hour shifts, Monday through Friday. Darling said that schedule will likely change af-
ter determining when and where they are needed most. “We want to get a feel for campus during business hours and see when people are calling 911,” he said. “We’ll tailor it to when people need us.” UNM EMS Lieutenant of Personnel Spencer Leiter said that as far as character, the team is looking for students who want to help improve the general welfare and security on campus. He said they are looking for students who have a good presence and are willing to answer questions that anyone on campus may have. Anyone is invited to join UNM EMS, as long as they are a student or alumnus of the University. “We’re going to be utilized not only for 911 response, but also we will be promoting safe behavior on campus,” Leiter said. “We’ll be tied to UNM — just establishing an official presence on campus, letting the students and faculty know that we’re trying to make campus safer, and that they can find a little bit of comfort in that.” The organization will expand on that initiative by promoting health outreach through forums, health clinics and CPR training courses, Captain of Personnel Myranda Riggle said. UNM EMS Captain of Training Andrew Powers said that educating the community about health is a vital duty of EMS. “That’s an important part of (our services), the community outreach,” Powers said. “We want
INTERESTED IN JOINING THE VOLUNTEER EMS PROGRAM?
Diana Cervantes / Daily Lobo / @dee_sea_
Students interested in joining Lobo EMS raise their hands during an informational meeting at the Acoma SUB rooms on Friday afternoon. Lobo EMS is UNM’s first emergency medical service open to all students who would like to volunteer.
to try and prevent as many injuries as possible.” According to the National Collegiate Emergency Medical Services Foundation, student-run EMS services are overwhelmingly prevalent on the east coast, at private institutions. There are only seventeen in the western United States, according to the foundation’s website. Darling said that UNM EMS would be the only organization of its kind in New Mexico at this time. He said there are various benefits to working with UNM EMS, including boosting the volunteer’s resume, networking and the possibility of scholarships in the future. He said that hands-on experience
is another very valuable incentive for people who are thinking of going into the medical field. “A lot of people who are going into pre-med, they don’t really have that hands-on experience,” he said. “And so, if they are not sure whether they like the medical (field), this gives them that opportunity to say ‘I’d really like to go into this field, this is what I want to do.’” Riggle said they are in the process of creating the orientations and planning dates for trainings. She said interested students will be emailed about the process of applying and training as it is developed.
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EMS page 2
Volunteers must have a current CPR card and health insurance. If they are not CPR certified, UNM EMS can provide resources for training. In addition students must go through a background check, HIPAA training, and Medical Reserve Course needle-stick training. UNM EMS will provide uniform shirts, helmets and reflective vests. Volunteers will be expected to provide their own black pants, black belt, and black, comfortable, closetoed shoes. Darling said volunteers shouldn’t be hesitant to join because of lack of knowledge. He said volunteers will be trained based on what they know already, and that it will be a learning experience in addition to serving the student body. Patrols will consist of, at minimum, a CPR-certified volunteer with an experienced paramedic. If students would like to learn more or have any questions about UNM EMS, they are invited to contact the organization at loboems@gmail.com or sems@unm.edu.