Physicians
urge pilot supervised injection facility, wider use of naloxone, more treatment for substance use disorder
New policies are among many on public health
and patient care approved at Society’s Annual Meeting April 29
Waltham, Mass. – May 1st – With the
opioid epidemic continuing to grow as a public health epidemic, physicians of
the Massachusetts Medical Society have expanded their advocacy in response to
the crisis by adopting additional policies at their annual meeting in Boston on
April 29.
The new policies on opioids address five
areas.
Physicians voted to (1) advocate for a
pilot supervised injection facility program in the state, to be under the
direction and oversight of the state; (2) promote standing orders for the
narcotic-overdose drug naloxone by physicians and encourage private and public
insurers to include the drug on its preferred drug list with minimal or no cost
sharing; (3) advocate for access to
medication-assisted treatments for state and county prisoners with opioid use
disorder; (4) urge the establishment and expansion of needle exchange programs;
and (5) reaffirm and amend existing policy to state that the Society recognizes
addiction as a chronic, relapsing brain disease and that the Society will work to increase access to services for
individuals with substance use disorder.
Medically-supervised safe injection
facilities (SIF) are a harm-reduction strategy have been associated with
declines in serious illness and disease, including HIV and hepatitis C. The new policy urging the creating of a pilot
SIF includes advocating for an exemption from federal drug laws for the program
and pursuing state legislation to legalize the pilot SIF. The policy also recommends including an
advisory board of experts to design evaluation protocols for the pilot and
consideration of additional harm-reduction measures such as counseling and referral,
to ensure comprehensive care is available to those with substance use disorder.
Adoption of these new policies are the
latest in a long list of actions the physicians’ group has taken to address the
opioid epidemic. Two years ago, it
created guidelines outlining best practices for prescribers that were adopted
by the state Board of Registration in Medicine. At the same time, it began
offering free educational courses in opioids and pain management for all prescribers,
and to date, nearly 10,000 prescribers have taken more than 28,000 of the
courses. It has also conducted public
information campaigns directed at patients to encourage the safe storage and
disposal of medications and was instrumental in the passage of federal
legislation to allow patients to get “partial-fill” prescriptions, both actions
designed to reduce the amount of drugs that could be diverted to those for whom
they were not prescribed – a major factor contributing to the opioid epidemic.
The policies
directed at the opioid epidemic were several among many adopted by the
physicians on a variety of topics affecting public health and patient care. Among
the others:
Prescription Drug Donation -- Responding to the rising prices of
drugs, physicians resolved to advocate for restoring state legislation that
allows the recycling of unused, sealed, and dated drugs from nursing homes and
to urge additional legislation to enact a prescription drug donation program,
including cancer-specific drugs, that will assist patients in need who are
uninsured or underinsured.
Medicaid -- Delegates stated their support of Medicaid as a federal
entitlement program and their recognition of the importance of Medicaid to
covering the state’s children, disadvantaged, and disabled.
Telemedicine – To minimize barriers to care and reduce
health care disparities, physicians resolved to engage in legislative and
regulatory efforts to expand access for patients of physicians licensed in
Massachusetts who wish to use telemedicine when it would be appropriate.
Health Care Proxy – Recognizing that the lack of a health
care proxy can result in unwanted care, physicians voted to work with the Massachusetts
Coalition for Serious Illness Care and the state legislature to encourage
people to complete health care proxies and to create a Health Care Proxy
Registry, available to health care providers with around-the-clock, secure
access.
Bullying – In reaffirming and expanding long-standing and wide
ranging-policies on violence intervention and prevention, the Society stated
its intention to provide training for health care providers on bullying,
cyberbullying, and other form of harassment, with particular attention to the
needs of vulnerable and marginalized groups.
Environmental Health/Noise – Stating that there is an inextricable
link between environmental health, animal health, and human health, delegates
voted to initiate a public health campaign to promote awareness of the
potential sources of pollutants and toxins in the environment and their impact
on public health. In a separate resolution, physicians acknowledged noise
pollution as a public health hazard with respect to hearing loss, and stated
their support of initiatives to increase awareness of the health risks of exposure
to loud noise.
Physicians also approved
policies that:
- Support state
and federal legislation to extend protections to transgender individuals to use
public restrooms in accordance with their gender identity;
- Advocate for
CPR training to be required as a condition of graduation from all high schools
in the Commonwealth;
- Urge the state
to continue funding of Reach Out and Read, a literacy program for young
children that has positive effects on health and language development; and
- Support access
to care and the elimination of stigma as strategies in mental health measures
implemented by colleges and universities.
Delegates also
adopted resolutions pertaining to the organization’s bylaws, administration and
management, and strategic planning.
The Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts
Medical Society brings together hundreds of Massachusetts physicians from
across the state to consider specific resolutions on public health, health care
delivery, and organizational administration by the Society’s House of
Delegates, its policy-making body. Resolutions adopted by the delegates become
policies of the organization.
The
Massachusetts Medical Society, with more than 25,000 physicians and student
members, is dedicated to educating and advocating for the patients and
physicians of Massachusetts. The Society, under the auspices of NEJM Group,
publishes the New England Journal of Medicine, a leading global medical journal
and web site, and Journal Watch alerts and newsletters covering 13 specialties.
The Society is also a leader in continuing medical education providing
accredited and certified activities across the globe for physicians and other
health care professionals. Founded in
1781, MMS is the oldest continuously operating medical society in the country.
For more information please visit www.massmed.org, www.nejm.org, or www.jwatch.org.
