Education of our future physicians is key to addressing pain and the opioid epidemic

Abstract

We explore the opioid epidemic as an example of what an educationally-driven, forward-thinking approach to healing problematic substance use might entail. We review the current state of four topics in pain and substance use disorder/opioid use disorder education and conclude each section by identifying educational initiatives that we hope may pave the way for improved clinical management of these topics in the future. Although these initiatives will be discussed explicitly in the context of undergraduate medical education, they are offered in the hope that this philosophy may be adapted for training among all healthcare disciplines. Our ultimate purpose is to detail how the education of future clinicians is essential to changing the environment that enables the problem to persist.

Keywords:

• Medical education
• pain
• addiction
• opioid
• substance use disorder

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University for supporting this current project and related educational initiatives.

Declaration of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.