RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 A Proposed Opioid Tapering Tool
JF The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Medicine
JO J Am Board Fam Med
FD American Board of Family Medicine
SP 1020
OP 1021
DO 10.3122/jabfm.2020.06.200076
VO 33
IS 6
A1 Benjamin Lai
A1 Daniel Witt
A1 Thomas Thacher
A1 Terrence Witt
YR 2020
UL http://www.jabfm.org/content/33/6/1020.abstract
AB Introduction: Previous studies suggest a lack of confidence among primary care providers in managing patients on chronic opioid therapy (COT) for chronic non-cancer related pain (CNCP). The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently introduced guidelines on opioid tapering. In light of these recommendations, our group developed an opioid tapering software to assist healthcare providers in managing patients on COT.Methods: The initial iteration of our software utilizes RedCap for the application programming interface (API). This tool is designed to reduce a patient's prescribed chronic opioids by 5-10% every month, or 5 morphine milligram equivalents per day (MME), whichever is the greatest, in line with HHS guidelines. Users can also adjust the rate of taper.Discussion: Our group plans to use this software in an upcoming pilot study to taper patients on COT for CNCP. We are exploring the possibility of transitioning our software into other available APIs with the goal of integrating this software into major electronic health record systems. Our group envisions that our software will provide an additional tool within a patient-centered, multi-modal framework in managing patients on COT for CNCP.