New Course: Increasing Patient Access to Pain Medicines Around the World

The Pain & Policy Studies Group (PPSG), a long-time OSI grantee, has launched an online course on access to pain relief medicines. This course is about the relationship between government policies that affect the medical availability of opioid analgesics and patients who experience moderate to severe pain. It is critically important for health care professionals, government drug regulators, and advocates involved in palliative care and pain relief to understand the government policies that control opioid analgesics and how they can block or ensure patient access to opioid analgesics.

PPSG designed the course to provide a synthesis of the critical background material and current methods that have been developed to improve national policies governing medical availability of essential pain medicines for cancer and HIV/AIDS patients. It is intended for an international audience of health care professionals, local and national policy makers, palliative care advocates, government drug regulatory personnel, national health policy advisors, and health policy scholars with an interest in pain management or palliative care.

The course is accessible at no cost and is self-paced so that it can be taken at any time that is convenient for the learner.  It has seven lessons each with required readings. Upon successful completion of the course the learner will receive a certificate.

The course lessons include:

Lesson 1:  Understanding the Relationship between Pain and Drug Control Policy
Lesson 2:  The Role of International and National Law and Organizations
Lesson 3:  Barriers to Opioid Availability and Access
Lesson 4:  WHO Guidelines to Evaluate National Opioids Control Policy
Lesson 5:  WHO Guidelines to Evaluate National Administrative Systems for Estimating Opioid Requirements and Reporting Consumption Statistics
Lesson 6:  WHO Guidelines on Procurement and Distribution Systems for Opioid Analgesics
Lesson 7:  How to Make Change in your Country

The development of this course was supported by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

For more information, and to access the course, please visit:
http://www.painpolicy.wisc.edu/on-line_course/welcome.htm