Home Health Care Issues

Pain Management Booklet to be Distributed to Michigan Physicians

The Bureau of Health Professions soon will be sending licensed Michigan physicians, medical residents, physician assistants, and advance practice nurses whose official address of record is in Michigan a copy of the Federation of State Medical Boards’ (FSMB) booklet, Responsible Opioid Prescribing: A Physician’s Guide.

This continuing medical education activity is jointly sponsored by the Alliance of State Pain Initiatives, the Federation of State Medical Boards, and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine. A maximum of 7.25 credits can be earned online.

This clear, concise handbook has been written for the FSMB by Scott M. Fishman, MD, chief of the Division of Pain Medicine and professor of Anesthesiology at the University of
California Davis, and past president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.

Responsible Opioid Prescribing: A Physician’s Guide provides concrete steps that can be taken to reduce risks and improve patient care in those cases where opioid therapy should be considered as part of a patient’s treatment plan.  The booklet also reflects the basic tenets of the FSMB’s 2004 Model Policy for the Use of Controlled Substances for the Treatment of Pain.

The Bureau of Health Professions recently established a new Pain Management and Palliative Care Program, the mission of which is to assist both health care professionals and the public in providing and being provided safe, adequate and appropriate pain and symptom management.

Additional information can be found on the Bureau’s Pain & Symptom Management website at www.michigan.gov/pm.

If you have any questions regarding this new program or the distribution of the Responsible Opioid Prescribing: A Physician’s Guide booklet, please contact Susan Affholter at 517-373-7303 or affholters@michigan.gov.  Also visit www.fsmb.org/pain/.