FOA Number: RFA-FD-17-008 ?Search and Rescue? Peer-to-Peer Opioids Prescriber Education Campaign Research & Related Other Project Information - Project Abstract This project will extend the ?Search and Rescue? prescriber education campaign developed and deployed over five years, beginning in 2012, with support from FDA. It will build on learning derived from two-state, six-state and national rollout phases, and will also incorporate new elements that will equip patients and their parents / family members to interact constructively with their providers as medication is being prescribed. The ?Search and Rescue? campaign was created and launched against a backdrop of mounting overdose deaths attributable to opioids, including prescription opioids. As that trend has steadily worsened (in part due to migration from prescription opioid abuse to heroin use), we perceive an urgent need to continue ? and to strengthen ? our efforts to equip prescribers to identify at-risk patients in their practices and refer them to treatment as appropriate. The Centers for Disease Control and the Surgeon General have both, within the past year, stressed the important role that prescribers must play in addressing today?s opioid addiction epidemic. As ?Search and Rescue? is extended, then, the Partnership will intensify its paid media outreach behind those channels of communication that have proven to be most effective in the first phase of the campaign, will further refine and enrich the campaign website at www.searchandrescueusa.org, will more aggressively enlist partner organizations (e.g., medical societies) in promoting the campaign, and will expand its earned media (public relations) efforts in support of the campaign. Lastly, drawing on the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids? expertise in reaching parents and caregivers of teens and young adults, a new campaign component will equip parents to ask prescribers basic questions at the time that medication is prescribed, helping to ensure that their child is being appropriately screened and advised ? in effect, ?demanding? of the prescriber a level of familiarity with the tools and resources promoted by the ?Search and Rescue? campaign. The effectiveness of this initiative will be measured via a combination of media and website analytics, and through pre- and post-surveys conducted among visitors to the website ? capturing intended improvement in familiarity with, and knowledge of, the basic tools and resources featured or linked to on the Search and Rescue site.
FOA Number: RFA-FD-17-008 ?Search and Rescue? Peer-to-Peer Opioids Prescriber Education Campaign Research & Related Other Project Information ? Project Narrative Against a backdrop of rising overdose deaths attributable to opioids, the ?Search and Rescue? prescriber education campaign will continue to reach prescribers of opioids with urgently needed educational content about the opioid epidemic, and will link them to tools and resources enabling them to identify at-risk patients and refer them to appropriate counseling and treatment. The Centers for Disease Control, the Surgeon General and nearly every responsible stakeholder in the public health arena have identified prescriber education as a critical factor in turning back the tide of opioid use disorders and overdose. Building on five years of research, pilot deployment and program refinement, the ?Search and Rescue? initiative can play an important part in motivating prescribers to seek Continuing Medical Education, consult Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, screen patients appropriately, seek alternatives to opioid therapy for chronic pain and, when appropriate, refer patients to treatment knowledgeably.
