I am excited to introduce a new PainQI series on Quorum highlighting how
primary care organizations are successfully improving opioid-prescribing and
pain management practice across Ontario.
By learning from our peers in the field, we can work towards
providing consistent high-quality care and improving pain management outcomes
for all our patients.
In 2017, 1 in 9 people in Ontario were dispensed an opioid to treat pain and
nearly 1 in 5 new opioid starts exceeded 90 MEQ/day. There has also been a
rapid rise in the number of opioid related hospitalizations and deaths in the
last decade along with increasing rates of opioid use disorder.
Discover how your peers from the field are improving
practice here:
More stories will be added to the series over time.
I hope that the Quorum community will learn from these
stories and feel empowered to influence change in their own settings.
Please share your own stories and join the
conversation on Quorum! By sharing and building on these successes, together we can drive
improvement for a healthier Ontario.
Need help supporting your patients in managing their pain?
Visit the
Ontario Pain Management Resources website for a
coordinated program of tools from partner organizations across the province.
Sincerely,
Dr. Arun Radhakrishnan, MD, CM, MSc, CCFP
Clinical Lead, Collaborative Mentoring Networks,
Ontario College of Family Physicians
Clinical Lead, Academic
Detailing & KTinPC, Centre for Effective Practice
Dr. Arun Radhakrishnan is a family physician with a
clinical interest in chronic pain and is affiliated with The Ottawa Hospital
and the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of
Toronto. He has an interest in developing and evaluating programs and tools to
support primary care knowledge translation. Towards this, he is currently the
Clinical Lead for the Collaborative Mentoring Networks at the Ontario College
of Family Physicians, a Clinical Lead with the Centre for Effective Practice
with the Academic Detailing & Knowledge translation in primary care
initiative and is also a 2017-18 AMS Phoenix Fellow.