“As deaths and medical costs associated with opioid painkiller addiction and abuse continue to rise in the U.S., the Obama administration is considering a recommendation to mandate new training for doctors who prescribe the drugs.
Following two days of hearings on improving the safety of opioid use, the Food and Drug Administration Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee agreed Wednesday to recommend that doctors be required to complete specialized training in order to be able to prescribe them.
The FDA does not have to follow the recommendations of its advisory panels, but it often does. Imposing this mandate would require congressional action.
Despite a similar expert panel recommendation in favor of mandatory training in 2012, the FDA had opted to make educational courses on safe pain prescription voluntary. As of March 2015, less than half of the 80,000 doctors the agency wanted to complete that training had done so.”
Read more at: http://cbs6albany.com/news/nation-world/physicians-warn-mandatory-opioid-prescription-training-could-have-unintended-effects
Source: CBSAlbany.com – May 5, 2016
