Member Alert:CDC Webinar Series Addresses Guidelines for Prescribing Opioids

June 16, 2016

On Wednesday, June 22, at 2:00 pm EDT, the CDC will present the first of a 7-part webinar series to familiarize providers, including dental professionals, with the new CDC Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain. The Guideline, which was released in March 2016, is based on the most current scientific evidence and provides 12 recommendations for the prescribing of opioid pain medication for patients 18 years and older in primary care settings. Recommendations focus on the use of opioids specifically in treating chronic pain (pain lasting longer than 3 months or past the time of normal tissue healing) outside of active cancer treatment, palliative care, and end-of-life care.

The first webinar will provide an overview of the CDC recommendations, including when and how opioids should be initiated for chronic pain, how to assess risk and address harms of opioid use, and when and how opioids should be discontinued. Subsequent modules will discuss other recommendations in the Guideline. Each 1-hour webinar will be available as a live webinar broadcast and as archived recording following the live webinars. These are free and offer continuing education credit. The first four currently scheduled webinars are:

Registration for these webinars is not required to participate; however, participants will need to register in a separate system to receive continuing education credits. To learn more about this event, visit https://emergency.cdc.gov/coca/calls/2016/callinfo_062216.asp.