ASH urges lawmakers to keep opioids accessible

June 7, 2018|Hematology and Oncology

Pain management training

While hematologists are trained about the potential risks of common drugs such as steroids, “none of that education and training has occurred” for opioids, Dr. Meier said.

“In my view, that is a major contributor to both under- and overprescribing of opioids and has been a contributor to the crisis that our country is currently in the middle of,” she said.

Since hematologists often aren’t trained in pain management, many are uncomfortable with managing pain in their diagnosis and leave the responsibility to a pain specialist, Dr. Osunkwo said. “But the problem is, they know more about the disease than anybody else, and you’ll be safer if [they] are doing the pain management for hematology patients because they know the risk and benefit of the different drugs in light of the diagnosis itself, compared to passing that on to somebody else to manage.”

In the recent policy statement, ASH leaders committed to creating evidence-based guidelines and education activities on pain management.