Methadone Safety Guidelines Webinar
(Originally aired Tuesday, November 11, 2014)
CME credit was only offered for participation in the live webinar on Tuesday, November 11, 2014. The recorded webinar is available here for educational purposes. CME credit is not being offered for the recorded webinar.
A recording of The Methadone Safety Guidelines: A Live Webinar is now available. The recorded webinar runs for 59:52 minutes.
This webinar reviews the guideline and provides recommendations for the safe use of methadone, including how to avoid risks related to overdose and cardiac arrhythmias.
The Methadone Safety Guidelines: A Live Webinar is intended for physicians in the primary care setting who prescribe methadone for the treatment of opioid addiction and for the treatment of chronic pain. The webinar will address safety in methadone prescribing practices.
Methadone is used for the treatment of opioid addiction and chronic pain. The safety of methadone has been challenged by increases in methadone-associated overdose deaths. The American Pain Society and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, in collaboration with the Heart Rhythm Society, commissioned an interdisciplinary expert panel to develop a clinical practice guideline on safer prescribing of methadone.
This guideline, based on a systematic review of the evidence on methadone safety, provides recommendations developed by a multidisciplinary expert panel. Safe use of methadone requires clinical skills and knowledge in use of methadone to mitigate potential risks, including serious risks related to overdose and cardiac arrhythmias. (The Journal of Pain, Vol 15, No 4 (April), 2014: pp 321—337).
Learning Objectives
By participating in this live webinar, participants can expect to achieve the following objectives:
- Discuss the epidemiology of methadone associated harms
- Discuss the unique properties of methadone.
- Develop strategies to reduce the risk of overdose and other serious harms associated with methadone use.
Faculty
Keela Herr, PhD RN AGSF FAAN, Moderator
Chair, APS Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee
Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty and Co-Director, Iowa John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, College of Nursing
University of Iowa
Roger Chou, MD
Lead author, Methadone Safety Guideline
Associate Professor in the Departments of Medicine, and Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology
Oregon Health & Science University
Melissa Weimer, DO MCR
Assistant Professor, Division of Internal Medicine
Oregon Health & Science University
Faculty/Planner Disclosure Information
Disclosure: It is the policy of APS that the planners, faculty, and this provider disclose the existence of any significant financial interest or other relationships they or their spouse or partner may have with the manufacturer(s) of any commercial product(s) or services relating to the topics presented in the educational activity. It is the responsibility of the Education Advisory Committee to review potential conflicts of interest as submitted in the disclosure form and resolve such conflicts. Resolving the conflict ensures that the content of the activity is aligned with the interests of the public. Detailed disclosure information will be published in course materials. Learners also will be informed when no relevant financial relationships exist.
The material presented in this activity represents the opinion of the speakers and not necessarily the views of APS.
The content and recommendations included in this webinar are based on recently published evidence-based Methadone Safety clinical practice guidelines. Clinical practice guidelines are “guides” only and may not apply to all patients and all clinical situations. Variations in practice, which take into account the needs of the individual patient and the resources and limitations unique to the institution or type of practice, may warrant approaches, treatments and/or procedures that differ from the recommendations outlined in this guideline. These recommendations should not be construed as dictating an exclusive course of management, nor does the use of such recommendations guarantee a particular outcome.
Roger Chou, MD: No relevant financial relationships.
Keela Herr, PhD RN AGSF FAAN: No relevant financial relationships.
Melissa Weimer, DO MCR: No relevant financial relationships.
Faculty Biographies
Roger Chou, MD FACP, is board-certified in general internal medicine. He is a professor in the Department of Medicine and the Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology at Oregon Health & Science University and the Director of the Pacific Northwest Evidence-based Practice Center.
Dr. Chou has led numerous systematic reviews in the area of pain evaluation and management and has led and participated in guidelines on the evaluation and management of pain. He is a member of the Cochrane Back Review Editorial Board, served as Director of the American Pain Society Clinical Guidelines Program, served as a member of the American College of Physicians Clinical Guidelines Committee, and is co-chair of the National Quality Form Musculoskeletal Standing Committee.
Keela A. Herr, PhD RN AGSF FAAN
Keela A. Herr, PhD RN AGSF FAAN, is Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty and Co-Director of the Iowa John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence in the College of Nursing at the University of Iowa. For more than 25 years, Dr. Herr has been engaged in a program of research, scholarly, and professional activities focused on the problem of pain in older adults, with emphases in assessment strategies, improving practices through translation research and end of life care. She has been a long-standing advocate for improving quality of pain care in older adults and presents nationally and internationally on strategies for improving assessment and management of pain in elders and published extensively on the topic of elder pain. She served on the 1998, 2002 and 2009 American Geriatric Society persistent pain guideline expert panels; served on the Board of Directors for the American Geriatrics Society, the American Society for Pain Management Nursing (ASPMN) and the American Pain Society. Dr. Herr has received many awards for her efforts and with recent recognition receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Gerontological Nurses Association in 2012 and the Jean Guveyan Lecturer Award by the ASPMN in 2013.
Melissa B. Weimer, DO MCR, is board-certified in general internal medicine and addiction medicine. She is an assistant professor in the Division of Internal Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University and the Medical Director at CODA, a substance abuse treatment agency in Portland, OR. Her clinical and research career focuses on the safe and effective treatment of chronic pain in the primary care setting. In addition to general medicine, she treats chronic pain, chronic pain in the setting of opioid addiction, and opioid dependency.
Additional Documents
Acknowledgements
The Methadone Safety Guideline, on which this live webinar is based, was prepared in collaboration with the College on Problems of Drug Dependence and the Heart Rhythm Society. Funding for the project was made possible by a grant from the Pain Research Fund of the American Pain Society.
