AMA joins Rhode Island health, state leaders to fight opioid crisis

The American Medical Association (AMA), the Rhode Island Medical Society (RIMS), and officials from the Rhode Island Department of Health and the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals announced today a partnership to develop and distribute a statewide educational toolbox for healthcare providers to help reverse the state's opioid epidemic. Rhode Island and Alabama are the first two states participating in this pilot program with the AMA.

The pilot program will build a toolbox — available online and in print — that incorporates the best information from the AMA, the RI Medical Society, and state health officials. It will be provided to physicians and other health care professionals with key data, valuable resources, and practice-specific recommendations they need to enhance their decision-making when caring for patients suffering from chronic or acute pain and opioid use disorders, as well as for patients needing overdose prevention education.