Providers Need Chronic Pain Training

Article originally published in The Hartford Courant

The series “Portraits of Addiction” explores several important issues about opioid addiction in Connecticut. What it doesn’t address is the lack of training received by many primary care providers in treating chronic pain.

For the past few years, our community health center has organized and led videoconference-based training in pain treatment available to front-line providers. Clinicians share information about their cases and learn from peers and pain specialists using a system called Project ECHO.

More than 500 providers at 67 health centers across 14 states have learned from our experts about how to better treat chronic pain, often without the need to use opioid painkillers. We have expanded Project ECHO to also train clinicians in treating addiction with suboxone.

As our health system faces new challenges like the opioid addiction epidemic, we must continue to train clinicians in improved ways of providing care. We must find new ways of working together across the country learning from each other to address this national crisis.

Mark Masselli, Middletown

The writer is president and CEO of Community Health Center Inc.