UPDATES

Pain Connection’s Gwenn Herman and Mary French have been chosen to be on the Advisory Council on Prescription Drug Monitoring Program. The Council shall identify prescription drugs to be monitored, the process for monitoring data, ensure confidential or privileged patient information, determine the most efficient and effective operation costs for program, identify the types of training and education needed to implement the program and to determine penalties for improper submission/use of monitoring data.

Gwenn Herman will be speaking before the FDA on Friday, November 14. The FDA is working on Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies. Discussions on patient package inserts, communication plans, elements to assure safe, for example, may mean that health care providers who prescribe the drug have particular training; that pharmacies, practitioners or health care settings that dispense the drug are specially certified; that the drug may be dispensed only in certain health care settings; that the drug may be dispensed to patients with evidence of safe-use conditions; that each patient must be subject to monitoring; or that patients must be enrolled in a registry.