[Re: https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/opioid-drugs-60-q8-do-healthcare-profes... ]
Dear Neil,
Perhaps the best description is not that specialist physicians (psychiatrists, addiction specialists, emergency medicine specialists) are generally well-informed about managing opioid use disorders, but rather that they are better informed than most primary care staff.
I completely agree with you that in the vast majority of situations, people with opioid use disorders will have their first contact with the healthcare system not with specialist physicians, but with primary care providers and community health workers. It is these individuals whom we must train if we want to have a population-wide impact.
The role of the healthcare system — especially primary care — is key in secondary and tertiary prevention:
- Identification of at-risk patients (chronic use, high-dose use, combinations with other psychotropic medications, etc.)
- Education on how to act in cases of overdose
- And fundamentally, knowledge of how to use naloxone
Evidence indicates that:
- Education and prescription of naloxone by the healthcare system can reduce mortality.
- The lack of integration of these practices represents a critical missed opportunity.
In population terms, this failure contributes to a higher number of fatal overdoses.
Kind regards,
Eduardo
Eduardo Bianco, MD, MSc, BIR
ATHP Director
Addiction Training for Health Professionals
Email: ebianco@nextgenu.org
HIFA profile: Eduardo Bianco is a medical doctor and Cardiologist, Certified Tobacco Cessation Expert with a Master's in Prevention and Treatment of Addictive Disorders. Bianco also has a degree in International Relations. Currently, he is Director of International Policy Education in Addictions of the Frank Foundation for International Health and Member of the Interim Policy Committee of the Global Alliance for Tobacco Control (GATC). He had a prominent role in promoting smoking cessation, tobacco control, WHO-FCTC implementation and NCD control in his country (Uruguay) as well as in Latin America for over 25 years. Bianco participated directly in most of the development process of the WHO-Framework Convention on Tobacco control and in the Sessions of the Conference of the Parties to this treaty. He was Director or Tobacco Control Program of InterAmerican Heart Foundation, Regional Coordinator for the Americas of the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), Chair of the Tobacco Expert Group of the World Heart Federation and Technical Director of the MOH Center for International Cooperation for Tobacco as well as Founder and Former President of the Tobacco Epidemic Research Center (CIET) in Uruguay. Eduardo helps coordinate the HIFA working group on substance use disorders. https://www.hifa.org/support/members/eduardo