School of Pharmacy Assistant Professor Feng Chang from the Faculty of Science has received $720,330 in Health Canada funding for the Interdisciplinary Initiative to Reduce Prescription Opioid Misuse.
The announcement is born from statistical evidence that opioid use and misuse are significant concerns in Canada. A 2014 study in Canadian Family Physician revealed that each year, Canadian pharmacies dispense over 30 million opioid pills or transdermal patches – nearly one for every person in the country. Opioids are important but potentially dangerous pain-management substances that, if misused, can result in addiction, withdrawal, injury, or death.
Healthcare providers mirror the federal government’s desire for more effective opioid use. According to a recent Ontario Pharmacy Research Collaboration (OPEN) survey, pharmacists often have questions about providing support for patients who use opioids to manage chronic pain.
Dr. Chang’s project, also known as the Opioid Education Partnership, aims to provide a continuing education program that answers those questions. The Partnership will deliver learning modules that connect the frontline professionals in opioid prescribing: physicians and pharmacists.
We’re focusing on collaboration between the two primary practitioners facing this problem. We aim to provide care and be humanistic. At a basic level, the goal is to create a supportive network of people providing care together.
The program will provide practicing physicians and pharmacists, as well as students and trainees of each profession, with evidence-based instruction from prescribing guidelines, best practices, misuse prevention strategies and more. As more and more Canadians receive opioid prescriptions to manage pain, it is increasingly important that healthcare providers are informed and have access to practice tools that leverage the expertise of various professions.
It’s not that there are no tools addressing this issue. Phone lines have existed for ages. But the Opioid Education Partnership is unique in its focus on strengthening the physician-pharmacist relationship. We aim to create a sense of interprofessional collaboration and peer support that both professions can rely on when dealing with the practice challenges that arise from working with opioids.
Working with co-investigators Dr. Agnes Kluz of the Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health and Rosemary Killeen, Director of Distance Education and Continuing Professional Development at the School of Pharmacy, the research team plans to deliver that ongoing support through an online peer-mentoring forum. The digital venue for questions and guidance will particularly benefit practitioners in rural and small communities where they might otherwise be isolated.
Once developed, the program may also be embedded into interprofessional education curricula at the University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy, further ensuring that Canada’s future healthcare professionals are confident in their knowledge of opioids.
The Partnership includes the following groups:
- Centre for Family Medicine Family Health Team
- Gateway Centre of Excellence in Rural Health
- KW & Area Family Medicine Residency Program, McMaster University
- Ontario Pharmacy Research Collaboration
- Southwestern Academic Health Network
- University of Waterloo Centre for Extended Learning
- University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy
- Ben Lobb, Member of Parliament for Huron-Bruce
- Lisa Thomas, Member of Provincial Parliament for Huron-Bruce