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Nov 2017

Opioid Manager

Introduction

In Ontario alone, one in eight people received an opioid for chronic non-cancer pain in 2016. The Opioid Manager is a clinical tool designed to support primary care providers manage opioid prescriptions for patients across Canada who experience chronic non-cancer pain.

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Information

About the tool

Opioids can be an effective way to treat pain but it is important for providers to know how to balance the risks and side effects of opioid therapy with the desired benefits. The Opioid Manager is designed to support healthcare providers prescribe and manage opioids for patients with chronic non-cancer pain.

The Centre for Effective Practice, in conjunction with the University Health Network, have updated the Opioid Manager tool based on feedback from health care providers and the recommendations from the 2017 Canadian Guideline for Opioids for Chronic Non-Cancer Pain.

What’s new with the Opioid Manager 2017?

The new Opioid Manager:

  • Emphasizes the importance of optimizing non-pharmacological and non-opioid pharmacotherapy interventions.
  • Contains initial dosing, titration and morphine equivalency information for all recommended opioids.
  • Contains succinct information and examples on how to appropriately monitor, taper and switch opioid prescriptions.
  • Includes accompanying fillable appendices that can inserted into the patient medical chart.

Clinical leads

  • Arun Radhakrishnan

    MSC, MD, CM, CCFP

    Dr. Arun Radhakrishnan is a family physician with a focused clinical practice in chronic non-cancer pain. He is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto and has a teaching affiliation with The Ottawa Hospital and the Elisabeth Bruyere Hospital. His research and education interests are in knowledge translation, mentoring and information and communication technologies in healthcare. He has led the development of a number of award-winning educational programs, clinical practice tools and resources to support primary care management of chronic pain. He is a past AMS Phoenix Fellow and is currently the Medical Director of the Adaptive Mentoring Networks with the Centre for Effective Practice. 

    Dr. Radhakrishnan provided clinical leadership for the opioid therapy for chronic non-cancer pain, non-pharmacological and non-opioid options for chronic non-cancer pain and opioid use disorder topics.

  • Jose Silveira

    BSC, MD, FRCPC, DIP, ABAM

    Dr. Jose Silveira is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Since 2001, Dr. Silveira has worked closely with the Ontario College of Family Physician’s Collaborative Mentoring Networks on the steering committee, as co-chair and as mentor. The networks support primary care providers in managing mental disorders, addictions and chronic pain. Dr. Silveira’s professional focus is to support the delivery of mental health and addiction care through primary care and community networks.

  • Andrea Furlan

    MD, PhD

    Dr. Andrea Furlan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto and a Staff Physician and Senior Scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. She is also a Scientist at the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto. She obtained her PhD in Clinical Epidemiology from the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Dr. Furlan has extensive experience in reviewing the scientific literature for the Cochrane Collaboration and for clinical practice guidelines. She received a CIHR New Investigator Award, and her research focus is on treatments of chronic pain including medications, complementary and alternative therapies, and rehabilitation. She was the team leader for the development of the Canadian Opioid Guideline, and is now involved with Guideline’s National Faculty in the dissemination and implementation of the guideline across Canada. She provided clinical leadership for the original and updated Opioid Manager. She is the author of the My Opioid Manager, a book and App for patients using opioids for chronic pain. Dr. Furlan is a co-Chair of Echo Ontario (link is external) for Pain and Opioid Stewardship.

Conflict of interest

The clinical lead received compensation for his role. 

Clinical Working Group receive an honorarium for their participation.

Usability participants (family physicians and primary care nurse practitioners) received a token of appreciation for their participation (e.g., gift certificate).


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