MHA, DPH and the Massachusetts Medical Society last week issued a letter to the heads of all residency programs – or Designated Institutional Officials (DIOs) – asking them to ensure that core competencies related to the use and prescribing of opioids are incorporated into the graduate medical education and training of residents and fellows.
MHA’s Substance Use Disorder Prevention and Treatment Task Force (SUDPTTF) had previously issued guidelines for opioid management within hospitals. Recommendation #7 of those guidelines stressed that hospitals should work with appropriate residency and fellowship programs to adopt a three-part core opioid prescribing competency requirements to train prescribers. All MHA member acute care hospitals signed a commitment letter to implement the guidelines.
While the core competencies continue to be integrated into undergraduate medical education, the recent letter from MHA, DPH, and MMS stresses to hospitals and educators how critical it is that medical residency programs also incorporate opioid competency requirements. To assist with this process, MMS has put together a compilation of free and readily accessible education modules, which have been selected to assist DIOs in integrating the competencies into their respective programs.