HIMSS 2018 Trends: Opioid
Good morning! I thought I was the only one getting an early start on HIMSS.
At HIMSS 2018 I expect to see a lot of software vendors talking about the opioid epidemic, and how they are using their software to make it safer for patients to get the pain medication they need. Many people will have died from abuse of narcotics and in some areas of the country it is the number one cause of death.
The Center for Disease Control and prevention estimates that the total "economic burden" of prescription opioid misuse alone in the United States is $78.5 billion a year.*
So, how can we leverage the software we have to help make it safer for patients, so they can have their pain control, but at the same time, that they are not getting medications that can hurt them?
Roughly 21 to 29 percent of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse them.
I see this as a continuum from having to really understand the medication ordering process to understanding how meds are administered, to understanding the supply chain, so you can see where the orders are coming from and where they are going out to. All of that needs to come together. I think we’re going to see software and EHR vendors who understand that and are working to really help providers administer the right meds to the right patients, safely and effectively.