Health IT Now, a coalition of patient groups, provider organizations, employers and payers, launched a working group Thursday focused on advancing technology to fight opioid abuse, including expanding virtual care and making EHRs more accurate and accessible.
The Opioid Safety Alliance is comprised of Health IT Now members as well as non-members. Leading the first-of-its-kind multistakeholder effort are organizations like the Association of Behavioral Health and Wellness, IBM, McKesson, and Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare, among others.
The alliance will advocate for the following reforms.
- Enacting a facilitator model for patient safety.
- Supporting funding to upgrade prescription drug monitoring programs' technology
- Ensuring clinician access to substance abuse information
- Expanding treatment options
- Testing emerging technologies
"Each day, the scourge of drug overdoses puts an estimated 175 Americans in a grave, with the greatest share of those fatalities coming directly from prescription opioid misuse. This is a public health emergency, yes, but for the health IT community, it must also be a call to action," Health IT Now Executive Director Joel White said in a press release. "Opioid Safety Alliance members have coalesced around bold, actionable solutions that bring the full force of technology to bear in solving this crisis. After all, opioid misuse is a 21st century epidemic and it demands forward-thinking, 21st century solutions."
The alliance will be testifying Jan. 30 before the FDA's Opioid Policy Steering Committee.
Click here to learn more about the Opioid Safety Alliance.