Addiction Medicine, Meet Physician Assistants

At the recent 2016 annual meeting of the American Academy of PAs (AAPA), the AAPA House of Delegates passed two important resolutions related to the treatment of opioid addiction and the safe prescribing of opiates for pain. The first resolution promotes increased patient access to opiate treatment programs, as well as the full utilization of PAs in opiate treatment programs, submitted by my specialty organization, the Society of Physician Assistants in Addiction Medicine (SPAAM). The second resolution offers guidance to PAs for safe opioid prescribing in the context of the nationwide explosion in opiate-prescribing deaths, submitted by the New York State Society of PAs (NYSSPA). The passage of these resolutions reflects the increased attention being paid to these issues, both inside and o…