Advancing Pharmacy Practice Through Faculty-Funded Research
Student Eustace Mua with Kelcey Kangla, Coordinator of Special Programs at the Worcester County Health Department
Changing Opioid Prescribing through Academic Detailing The United States’ drug-related overdose and deaths continues to worsen during the pandemic. There have been increases in drug overdose mortality as high as 27% compared to the year prior as a result of COVID-19. The economic instability, social isolation, increased mental stress, and limited access to addiction support and medications were contributing factors that led to a rise of opioidrelated deaths. Inappropriate and excessive prescribing of opioids by prescribers is central to the opioid crisis in America. Recent efforts to limit the availability of opioids include monitoring medications on the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP) and educational interventions to prescribers. An example of this is through academic detailing, a technique where healthcare professionals are educated about evidence-based information about opioid overdose to change
Alyssa Reese with Community Health Worker Elizabeth Justice at an academic detailing session at TidalHealth.
their prescribing behavior. Through a grant funded by the Worcester County Health Department, Dr. Yen Dang’s rotation students will be involved in an academic detailing program to reduce opioid overdose on the Eastern Shore. UMES third-year pharmacy students will be working with Worcester County Health Department community health workers and go to prescriber’s offices and pharmacies to educate them about opioid misuse. Educational visits may also occur online. Naloxone education, training, and prescribing will also be reviewed for patients who are at risk for overdose. Pharmacy students will also work with health department officials to deter providers from prescribing opioids for chronic pain and encourage the use of Maryland’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program to monitor any suspicious refill activity. The program will occur until June 2022. UMES RxTIMES > Fall 2021
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