Medical Stasi: The Standardization Proclamation and Its Consequences

The opioid crisis in America has resulted in many changes and challenges for clinicians who undertake the difficult field of pain management. Specifically, guidelines have been proposed and effectively adopted by regulators and insurers as quasi standards of care. This has created very real barriers to the effective use of an important class of analgesics: opioid analgesics. Attorney Jen Bolen and Dr. Doug Gourlay offer insights into the difficult practice of managing risk in the treatment of chronic pain, especially in the more complex patient populations where polypharmacy is often the rule, rather than the exception.