Prescribing for pain

Sunday, November 01, 2015 11:23 AM

COPIC-funded study aims to optimize pain prescriptions

by Jessica Ennis, Marketing and Communications Manager, RxAssurance

The COPIC Medical Foundation recently awarded a grant to Denver-based prescription optimization company, RxAssurance. The grant will fund a study of the efficacy of RxAssurance’s prescription pain medication platform for improving patient safety and outcomes. Colorado doctors are currently being enrolled for participation at www.rxassurance.com/copic.

The six-month study will evaluate a new tool to help Colorado physicians prescribe opioids safely and effectively, monitor their patients to improve outcomes, and document high quality provision of care. The tool, called OpiSafe, promises to make it easier for physicians to safely prescribe opioids. Of course, this tool must be proven in the real world of medical practice to demonstrate its value to clinicians and patients alike. Prescribers are well aware of the opioid epidemic and of the many recommendations for doctors to safely prescribe these medications, and this study will test a new tool to help simplify the process, save time and improve adherence.

According to Rob Valuck, PhD, RPh, chief strategy officer at RxAssurance, this study will generate important evidence to show that physicians and patients using OpiSafe can, and will, more easily adhere to best-practice guidelines for opioid prescribing and achieve better outcomes. “Our goal is to make it easier for doctors and patients to do the many things that are recommended so they can use pain medications safely and minimize risks,” he said.

The first 100 physicians to sign up will be able to use the OpiSafe system at no cost for the six-month study period. Enrollment will help establish how well the system works, how it can be improved and how it can make it easier to prescribe opioids safely. The OpiSafe system helps prescribers do complete, guideline-adherent prescribing, including baseline pain and function assessment, risk stratification, automated PDMP checking (once a patient is on-boarded into OpiSafe the system does it for prescribers), guideline-recommended monitoring (done for prescribers by OpiSafe with an app or web interface used by patients), random UAs, and a clinical decision support dashboard for prescribers to check at each subsequent visit to see how patients are progressing clinically, or if any aberrant behaviors or problems have been detected.

To provide additional incentive to join the study, COPIC will offer its insured physicians two COPIC points for study participation (to be awarded at the end of the six-month study period). Participation is free and benefits prescribers by providing a tool to help clinical practice, reducing patients’ risk of untoward outcomes and reducing liability risk. After the completion of the study period, participating physicians will be offered discounted pricing on ongoing, monthly subscriptions to OpiSafe (regularly priced at $159/month; study physicians may choose to subscribe at a rate of $129/month, a savings of 20 percent), or a prescriber may choose to opt out, and not subscribe beyond the free study period.

Sign up is easy, only takes a few minutes and is open to the first 100 physicians who enroll. For more information and to enroll, visit www.opisafe.com/copic.