Improving Global Opioid Availability for Pain & Palliative Care: A Guide to a Pilot Evaluation of National Policy
The purpose of this report, entitled “Improving Global Opioid Availability for Pain & Palliative Care: A Guide to a Pilot Evaluation of National Policy” (Global Evaluation Guide), is to promote more consistent country policy governing the medical management of pain generally, as well as specifically in palliative care, that allows for the legitimate use of controlled medicines. This report represents a pilot study founded on the conviction that any nation’s governmental and regulatory policies can be examined systematically using valid criteria, as a means to inform activities to better align policy content with established pain management standards and international drug control requirements. For this to transpire, policy language must be evaluated according to structured criteria. International legal, regulatory, and health care authorities have continually called for the examination of countries’ policies, in relation to their impact on pain management and medication availability. When such activity occurs, policy language can be identified that, when implemented into practice, has the potential to either (1) promote safe and effective pain management through legitimate professional practice, or (2) create barriers to safe and effective pain management by imposing severe restrictions or creating practice ambiguities.
This Global Evaluation Guide provides a conceptual and methodological framework for identifying policy content that should be examined and addressed, including the identification of language to guide the development of new or revised policies that maintain medication availability and assure that patient care decisions requiring medical expertise are not unjustifiably limited – again, this concept is the foundation of the current pilot study to address international policy.1 Such policy related to pain management issues can be accomplished and preserved if government authorities, regulatory agency members, and healthcare professionals collaborate and successfully utilize the policy resources that are available. When this is effectively undertaken, a more positive legislative, regulatory, and practice environment can be achieved to treat pain in all patients, including those who are challenged by cancer, HIV/AIDS, polio, sickle‐cell anemia, and other painful conditions.