Physician education, academic detailing successfully reduces opioid use

Education works! A multilevel campaign that included departmental grand rounds, data review, circulation of journal papers that highlight the effects of opioid over-prescribing, visual display of individual clinician prescribing for comparison with peers, and academic detailing were used to focus on opioid overuse epidemic and opioid dependence in a recent study that examined the influence of this approach upon opioid prescribing activity by hundreds of clinicians involving over a million clinical encounters, measured using a health system’s electronic medical record. Morphine mg equivalent doses per encounter decreased 1.0 MME per encounter per month, and after the intervention the monthly MME per encounter was 58% lower than the average of the 6-month baseline, and the MME per opioid prescription per month was 34% less than the average of the baseline. The opioid prescription rate was 38% also lower than the average of the baseline. Details of this study can be read in the JAMA open network.