(Portland, Ore.) – Health Share of Oregon, the Northwest Addiction Technology Transfer Center at Oregon Health & Science University, and experts from across Oregon met for a full day of actionable and relevant continuing medical education (CME) on March 10, 2016. More than 200 providers attended the CME, which focused on evidence-based, multi-disciplinary approaches to chronic pain, substance use disorders, and trauma.
Key topics included a public health overview of the opioid epidemic; the neurobiology and psychosocial dimensions of chronic pain, addiction and trauma; evidence-based behavioral and pharmacologic therapies for these disorders; innovative pain education and physical rehabilitation approaches to pain; safe opioid tapers and shared decision-making; and compassionate conversations with patients about opioids and appropriate pain management.
“One driver of our opioid epidemic is lack of education among our provider community,” said Rachel Solotaroff, MD a primary care provider and Chief Medical Officer at Central City Concern. “Pain management is particularly difficult, because it is so complex, the science is new, and there are is significant overlap with other areas where providers have little training, such as addiction and mental health. This day of learning was an opportunity to embrace that complexity, bringing science and the art of healing together to examine a complex issue from many angles, and hopefully do better by our patients in the future.”
As Portland adopts community-wide safe opioid prescribing guidelines to mitigate opioid harms and overdoses, primary care practices are compelled to improve care for chronic pain, and conditions that often accompany pain, including addiction, trauma and mental health disorders.
“Health Share is highly invested in addressing the issues of addiction, access to treatment, and safe and appropriate opioid prescribing,” said Health Share’s Chief Medical Officer Maggie Bennington-Davis, MD. “ We also support improving knowledge about pain management and are fortunate to have state and regional experts and providers willing to teach us what works.”
Presenters for the training include providers from Central City Concern, CODA, Kaiser Permanente, Legacy Health, OHSU, Providence Health & Services, and Jackson County.
About Health Share of Oregon
Health Share of Oregon is the state’s largest Medicaid coordinated care organization (CCO), serving more than 235,000 Oregon Health Plan (OHP) members in Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties.
Our organization was founded and continues to be governed by 11 familiar health care organizations serving OHP members: Adventist Health, CareOregon, Central City Concern, Clackamas County, Kaiser Permanente, Legacy Health, Multnomah County, Oregon Health & Science University, Providence Health & Services, Tuality Health Alliance and Washington County.
