Grant: Dissemination Events

Opioids are drugs that are prescribed to relieve chronic pain, although there is little evidence of their effectiveness for long-term use. Despite this, prescriptions for opioids have increased over several years, and physicians are prescribing opioid drugs at higher-than-recommended doses. The Canadian guideline for opioid use was published in 2010 in an attempt to reduce opioid-related harm, but important research about opioid safety and effectiveness that can impact policy and practice, including information about the harmful effects of high doses of opioid drugs, has recently been published and is not included in this guideline. Therefore, it appears that more timely research dissemination is needed to inform policymakers, clinicians and public health professionals about issues related to opioid prescribing and use. This grant aims to create a collaborative environment for knowledge sharing and tools for the dissemination of research findings regarding the safety of prescription opioids produced by the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network (ODPRN) and other researchers. We will develop an online community of practice (OCoP) for opioids, and will invite clinicians, policymakers and public health professionals to join as OCoP members to learn about the most current research evidence on opioids and to contribute their own knowledge and research. We will also develop a set of resources and tools for research dissemination targeted to these groups that can be accessed by members of the OCoP and non-members who are visitors to the site; these will include videos, a research repository and briefing reports. We will conduct a focused evaluation of the OCoP and tools. Our dissemination strategy will help policymakers, clinicians and public health professionals access information to make better-informed decisions, which will in turn lead to safer opioid use for patients with chronic pain.