HHS Announces New Interactive Training on Safe Opioid Use

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced a new, interactive training course that teaches health care providers how to talk to patients about safely using opioids to manage chronic pain. The course, “Pathways to Safer Opioid Use,” also teaches implementation strategies for meeting the opioid-related recommendations from the National Action Plan for Adverse Drug Event Prevention (PDF). Adverse drug events (ADEs) are the largest contributor to hospital-related complications and account for more than 3.5 million physician office visits each year, according to HHS. The training, which is offered at no cost, includes self-guided interactive videos with decision points to help users learn how to apply health literacy strategies to help patients understand and act on information to prevent opioid-related ADEs; identify individual risk factors, opioid medications, and interactions that place individuals with chronic pain at increased risk for opioid-related ADEs; recognize the importance of a multidisciplinary team-based approach to treating patients with chronic pain; and demonstrate the ability to combine the principles of the Health Literate Care Model and the biopsychosocial model. Additional information is available on the course website.