Prescribers Care Discussion Series – September 21, 2022
SEPTEMBER 21, 2022
PERSON-CENTERED STRATEGIES TO REDUCE
OPIOID OVERDOSE
5:30–7:30 PM
Sterling Hills Golf Club, Camarillo
Join the discussion on how as leaders in health care we can do our part in reversing the current opioid overdose death trend in our community. Learn more about the latest advances in opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment, how new approaches to integrated care and cutting-edge harm reduction strategies
can reduce overdoses in our community. Discuss how to educate patients on what they can do to prevent opioid misuse.
REGISTER HERE
PRESENTED BY
- Loretta L. Denering, DrPH, MS; Assistant Director, Ventura County Behavioral Health
- Rachel McDuffee, PsyD; Regional Director Aegis Treatment Centers
- Tipu V. Khan, MD, FAAFP, FASAM; Addiction Medicine Fellowship Director, VCMC
For more information: Ashley.Nettles@ventura.org
Prescribers are key to creating change in our community.
Thanks to exceptional local collaboration, Ventura County has seen a decrease in opioid prescribing in recent years – a 24% reduction between 2017 and 2020 – as providers have employed safe prescribing practices and increased use of non-narcotic pain management strategies.
Unfortunately, overdose deaths continue to climb, largely due to illegal fentanyl, which has replaced much of the local heroin use and is contributing to the rising number of overdose emergencies. As a concerned local provider, we invite you to join the Prescriber Discussion Series:
- Hear from local experts and discuss with peers the latest trends and best practices.
- Get provider-focused resources to reduce misuse and opioid use disorder (OUD).
- Learn the new State guidelines and latest tools for patient care and provider coordination.
Connecting because we care. For our patients and for our community.
PREVIOUS DISCUSSIONS
- May 11, 2022 • 5:30–7:30 PM
Latest Trends in Overdose: What Prescribers Need to Know About Illicit Fentanyl
- June 8, 2022 • 5:30–7:30PM
Evidence-based Safe Prescribing
- August 31, 2022 • 5:30–7:30PM
Deprescribing is Good Prescribing
LEARN MORE AND REGISTER:
International Overdose Awareness Day - August 31, 2022
International Overdose Awareness Day on August 31, 2022, is the world’s largest annual campaign to end overdose and remember those who have died without stigma and acknowledge the grief of the family and friends left behind. The campaign raises awareness of overdose, which is one of the world’s worst public health crises and stimulates action and discussion about evidence-based overdose prevention and drug policy.
Learn more:
Interview with Tipu V. Khan, MD, FAAFP, FASAM; Addiction Medicine Fellowship Director, VCMC
Tell us about your background: education, residencies, and career path.
I attended the University of Washington where I got a certificate in underserved pathways, caring for the underserved, on top of my MD degree. I came back to southern California and did a residence at Harbor UCLA and trained in the county hospital. l then went to USC and did high- risk OB fellowship. Then at a FQHC in full spectrum primary care, mix of all underserved. In 2014, I joined VCMC.
What is your current role and what was your initial role with the county, if different?
I always wanted to go back to academics, wanted a couple of years under my belt and I had real world experience after two years. I realized I liked full-spectrum care, all of it, high-risk OB, and began looking for jobs for this and there wasn’t a lot. There were two, one in Riverside county and one at VCMC. VCMC had name recognition, and a stellar reputation. I had three children who were 9, 6, and 3 years old at the time, and it felt like the right place for us to be.
What was it that interested you in this work?
For me, growing up I saw the lack of care for patients who had limited medical access. Friends who wouldn’t get diabetes check-ups until they were in dire need of foot care. One friend didn’t get proper care and that led to a bad outcome. The underserved need more high-level care. That’s why I went down that pathway. The ability to be an advocate for those who need a voice in the system was what interested me in this work.
Is there a ‘typical’ patient who comes to see you?
That’s what I love about my job, every week is different. One week I’m on the addiction consult service and it’s intense, high intensity. Then I’m in the ER, then a delivery, and the next week on primary care. The breadth and scope of practice is very different. Literally cradle to grave.
What do you see as the most urgent issue in the world of addiction at this time?
That’s a tough question: Fentanyl, if I had to put it into one word. That’s why the Prescriber’s Care Discussion Series for medical providers in Ventura County is a great approach. It’s not going to happen with just law enforcement. It will require a complete revision on how we approach the issue of addiction, with fentanyl overdoses. Every person or a family member knows at least two people who have overdosed or died. Not just one avenue to care will work here. We need to look at this in a different way. We’ve tried increasing access to care; addiction is not something like small pox that comes and goes away. We’ve struggled with this issue since the beginning of time. It will never be entirely gone. We need to learn to live with it, with as little impact as possible.
What (if anything) do people most misunderstand about a person addicted to substances?
People who haven’t experienced an addiction, don’t understand it’s not under their control. We want to say, ‘Just say no’, or ‘let god, let go.’ They have a disease; it’s disconnected from the pleasure pathway. You’ve got an adolescent brain running your entire life. That’s the neurobiology of the disease/brain. When I have that conversation with patients about the disconnect from the front of their brain, it clicks. A good amount of it is out of their control. A lot of these people have a lot of underlying trauma from when they were much younger, and you’re not going to fix those pathways. They don’t have that executive function. They need education to help with skills to learn to cope without the use of substances. Not a simple task. In the world of addiction care there’s medication care and addiction medicine, which we approach from the medicine side; we use a lot of pharmacy care, medications Suboxone and Buprenorphine, along with all the behavioral part of it. We have a good relationship with drug court and primary care, public health nurses, and for years we were the only addiction medicine group in the county; now we are the largest, though there are others in the county. We take all insurance, self-referral from Gold Coast, word of mouth.
Tell us about the team you work with at VCMC?
We have five faculty and fellows, docs in trainings, and a strong behavioral health team in the clinic and great nurses. Also, a good Substance use navigator at the hospital. It’s the whole team and picture, great relationship with VCBH, we work with a woman and children residential treatment center, a house for women to detox and stay with their children. This treatment center is the only such medical place in the county.
What do you feel is the most beneficial aspect of the Prescriber’s Care Discussion Series you recently facilitated?
What I really appreciated from the first one is that you’re not hearing one side of the story, it’s really encompassing all sides of the substance abuse scene. Law enforcement, coroner, we’re all trying to do the right thing but everyone approaches it from a different lens. We don’t all see things the same way. Sgt. Hadjucko from VCSO might say, put more people in jail; that’s how they approach it from their lens. The second series we talked about safely prescribing.
Anything else you’d like us to know about you and the work that you do?
We’ve built a community presence and even if someone hasn’t met with us they have heard about it. Depends on where they are in their process. Where they are in their change. Some are not ready to have a discussion. But it is easier to have those conversations now than, say four years ago. And that’s a win.
Prescribers Care Discussion Series – August 31, 2022
August 31, 2022
DEPRESCRIBING IS GOOD PRESCRIBING
5:30–7:30 PM
Sterling Hills Golf Club, Camarillo
Just as safe prescribing is an integral and effective strategy to prevent opioid use disorder, safe deprescribing is also key. In this workshop, we’ll discuss when, and how to safely and effectively taper patients from opioid usage. Is the deprescribing plan not working? Let’s talk about how to talk with patients about opioid use disorder and effective referrals to substance use treatment.
REGISTER HERE
PRESENTED BY
- Tipu V. Khan, MD, FAAFP, FASAM; Addiction Medicine Fellowship Director, VCMC
- Kyle Stephens, DO, Family Medicine Specialist, Primary Care
- George C. Chang Chien, DO, Director of Pain Management, Ventura County Medical Center
For more information: Ashley.Nettles@ventura.org
Prescribers are key to creating change in our community.
Thanks to exceptional local collaboration, Ventura County has seen a decrease in opioid prescribing in recent years – a 24% reduction between 2017 and 2020 – as providers have employed safe prescribing practices and increased use of non-narcotic pain management strategies.
Unfortunately, overdose deaths continue to climb, largely due to illegal fentanyl, which has replaced much of the local heroin use and is contributing to the rising number of overdose emergencies. As a concerned local provider, we invite you to join the Prescriber Discussion Series:
- Hear from local experts and discuss with peers the latest trends and best practices.
- Get provider-focused resources to reduce misuse and opioid use disorder (OUD).
- Learn the new State guidelines and latest tools for patient care and provider coordination.
Connecting because we care. For our patients and for our community.
UPCOMING DISCUSSIONS IN THE SERIES
- September 21, 2022 • 5:30-7:30pm
Person-Centered Strategies to Reduce Opioid Overdose
PREVIOUS DISCUSSIONS
- May 11, 2022 • 5:30–7:30 PM
Latest Trends in Overdose: What Prescribers Need to Know About Illicit Fentanyl
- June 8, 2022 • 5:30–7:30PM
Evidence-based Safe Prescribing
LEARN MORE AND REGISTER:
Prescribers Care Discussion Series – June 8, 2022
June 8, 2022
EVIDENCE-BASED SAFE PRESCRIBING
5:30–7:30 PM
Sterling Hills Golf Club, Camarillo
Join us for a review of local opioid prescribing trends. We’ll discuss how safe prescribing and use of CURES can prevent or reduce opioid misuse and opioid use disorder (OUD) in our patients. Hear from Tipu Khan MD, an author of the newest California Guidelines for Safe Opioid Prescribing, on how to utilize the newest guidelines in our practices. Learn how other local Primary Care and Pain Management Specialist use effective safe prescribing strategies to treat patients at risk of opioid misuse or opioid use disorder (OUD).
REGISTER HERE
PRESENTED BY
- Tipu V. Khan, MD, FAAFP, FASAM; Addiction Medicine Fellowship Director, VCMC
- Kyle Stephens, DO, Family Medicine Specialist, Primary Care
- George Chang Chien, DO, Director of Pain Management, Ventura County Medical Center
For more information: Ashley.Nettles@ventura.org
Prescribers are key to creating change in our community.
Thanks to exceptional local collaboration, Ventura County has seen a decrease in opioid prescribing in recent years – a 24% reduction between 2017 and 2020 – as providers have employed safe prescribing practices and increased use of non-narcotic pain management strategies.
Unfortunately, overdose deaths continue to climb, largely due to illegal fentanyl, which has replaced much of the local heroin use and is contributing to the rising number of overdose emergencies. As a concerned local provider, we invite you to join the Prescriber Discussion Series:
- Hear from local experts and discuss with peers the latest trends and best practices.
- Get provider-focused resources to reduce misuse and opioid use disorder (OUD).
- Learn the new State guidelines and latest tools for patient care and provider coordination.
Connecting because we care. For our patients and for our community.
UPCOMING DISCUSSIONS IN THE SERIES
- August 31, 2022 • 5:30 7:30 PM
Deprescribing is Good Prescribing
- September 21, 2022 • 5:30-7:30pm
Person-Centered Strategies to Reduce Opioid Overdose
PREVIOUS DISCUSSIONS
- May 11, 2022 • 5:30–7:30 PM
Latest Trends in Overdose: What Prescribers Need to Know About Illicit Fentanyl
LEARN MORE AND REGISTER: