Legislative Calendar


Book Description







Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic


Book Description

Drug overdose, driven largely by overdose related to the use of opioids, is now the leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two public health challenges: reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can arise from the use of opioid medications. Chronic pain and opioid use disorder both represent complex human conditions affecting millions of Americans and causing untold disability and loss of function. In the context of the growing opioid problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. As part of this plan, the FDA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on informing FDA's development of a formal method for incorporating individual and societal considerations into its risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring.




Combating Tobacco Use in Military and Veteran Populations


Book Description

The health and economic costs of tobacco use in military and veteran populations are high. In 2007, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) requested that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) make recommendations on how to reduce tobacco initiation and encourage cessation in both military and veteran populations. In its 2009 report, Combating Tobacco in Military and Veteran Populations, the authoring committee concludes that to prevent tobacco initiation and encourage cessation, both DoD and VA should implement comprehensive tobacco-control programs.







The Prescribing Pharmacist


Book Description

Prescribing has traditionally been the responsibility of medical doctors but independent prescribing courses are now firmly established in the UK and increasing numbers of healthcare professionals have taken on prescribing responsibilities. The Prescribing Pharmacist reflects these changes, beginning with an overview of pharmacist prescribing and continuing with an exploration of consultation, patient clinical assessment, team working, and understanding cultural and religious issues and ethics. Internal and external influences on the new prescriber are considered, as well as medicines optimisation. The authors also look at prescribing for specific patient groups, such as the elderly, the very young, pregnant women and breast-feeding women, and finally move on to specific medicines that require special care when prescribing. Each chapter of the book refers and links to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society framework written in 2016, A Competency Framework for All Prescribers, which is reproduced, with permission. Written by a team of pharmacy experts, this book is intended for any pharmacist who is thinking of becoming an independent prescriber, those on pharmacy courses and those who are already qualified as independent or supplementary pharmacist prescribers, who may use it as a reminder of important points covered on their course. Contents include: • List of abbreviations • An introduction to pharmacist prescribing • The consultation, diagnostic process, diagnosis and influences on prescribing • Patient clinical assessment • Patient partnership and prescribing • Prescribing for specific groups of patients • Medicines requiring particular care when prescribing • Appendix 1: A Competency Framework for All Prescribers