Sam Brusco, Associate Editor08.31.18
As I’ve mentioned a few times before, the misuse of and addiction to opioids is a serious crisis affecting public health, as well as social and economic welfare. The social and emotional repercussions of opioid addiction are troublesome enough, but The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate the economic burden of prescription opioid misuse in the U.S. to be about $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of healthcare, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement.
While some of the issue can be attributed to recreational use, a sizeable majority of opioid abusers are long-term post-surgical pain or chronic pain patients believing there is no other way to achieve relief. The issue stretches to clinicians, as well—prescription opioids have been billed as a “one-size-fits-all” approach to pain management, with many healthcare professionals unaware of possible technologies that can bring pain down to a level manageable with physical therapy or non-opioid pain-relieving drugs.
To gain some insight on some technologies that present an alternative to opioid pain therapies, I spoke with Roger Massengale, vice president and general manager, Acute Pain, at Avanos Medical, an Alpharetta, Ga.-based medical device company focused on delivering breakthrough solutions that will help patients get back to the things that matter. Avanos is committed to creating the next generation of healthcare solutions which will address reducing the use of opioids while helping patients move from surgery to recovery.
Sam Brusco: Why is it so important to reduce or eliminate opioid use among surgical patients?
Roger Massengale: The country is experiencing an epidemic of overuse and abuse of prescription drugs. Opioids prescribed for surgery have played a major role. In postoperative pain management, life-threatening opioid addiction can affect patients in a matter of days. Dependency can begin within just three days of initial opioid use. Even a one-day opioid prescription may post a six percent chance of long-term use, and as many as one in five patients become a routine opioid user after 10 days of narcotic analgesia.
Opioid-based pain medications may also lead to other complications, such as over-sedation and constipation. By reducing opioid use among surgical patients when appropriate, healthcare professionals can contribute to curbing the nationwide opioid epidemic, while enhancing patient outcomes.
Brusco: How is Avanos Medical working to advance non-opioid pain therapies?
Massengale: We currently offer leading therapies for non-opioid pain management. The ON-Q* Pain Relief System is an opioid-sparing elastomeric ambulatory infusion pump system indicated to significantly reduce the need for opioids and provide better pain relief than opioids alone. It delivers a customizable and continuous flow of local anesthetic to a patient's surgical site or in close proximity to peripheral nerves and can be used for up to five days after surgery. Patients treated with ON-Q* may experience faster recovery and less post-operative pain with fewer side effects than patients taking opioids alone.
Avanos’ Coolief Cooled Radiofrequency Treatment offers patients a non-opioid, minimally invasive, non-surgical alternative to treat osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain, and with our recent acquisition of Game Ready, a market leader for cold and compression therapy systems, we are able to provide another innovative non-opioid therapy for surgical patients. In addition, Avanos has increased its R&D spend on new innovations to reduce opioids in this space.
Brusco: Why was Game Ready determined to be a strategic fit? How will Game Ready’s therapy system provide a means to reduce patient opioid use?
Massengale: The acquisition of Game Ready is another step forward in Avanos’ transformation and underscores our commitment to innovative non-opioid therapies. Its product line offers the company another strong weapon in the fight to eliminate or reduce the use of opioids for surgical patients while building on international capabilities and expertise in acute pain management. Game Ready’s cold therapy and compression therapy products can be used with our ON-Q* Pain Relief System as part of a multimodal approach to pain management. The combination of both portfolios will broaden our orthopedic footprint.
Brusco: Do you think the FDA's recently announced “innovation challenge” for medtech alternatives to opioids will make an impact on the crisis? If so, in what way? If not, why?
Massengale: Yes, I think so. Currently available non-opioid medtech therapies already provide patients with pain management solutions with lower opioid use. Recognizing that there is not a “one-size-fits-all” treatment when it comes to pain management, further research, and innovation in medtech holds great potential to playing an even larger role in helping to reduce the scope of the crisis. As a company known for purposeful innovation and the advancement of patient care, we encourage healthcare providers and their patients alike to consider opioid reduction strategies through proven approaches and existing device alternatives, such as ON-Q*, for opioid sparing pain relief.
We have ongoing projects that we intend to submit for this challenge as well.
Brusco: What do you believe is key to the increased adoption of technological alternatives to opioid therapy?
Massengale: Placing a stronger emphasis on physician and patient education and reimbursement on opioid alternatives can help support opioid reduction strategies while providing optimal pain management solutions that get patients back to the things that matter. The overuse and overreliance of opioids after surgery has played a large role in the opioid epidemic. If we can help physicians reduce the number of opioids their patients take after surgery, we may be able to prevent the addiction problem before it starts.
While some of the issue can be attributed to recreational use, a sizeable majority of opioid abusers are long-term post-surgical pain or chronic pain patients believing there is no other way to achieve relief. The issue stretches to clinicians, as well—prescription opioids have been billed as a “one-size-fits-all” approach to pain management, with many healthcare professionals unaware of possible technologies that can bring pain down to a level manageable with physical therapy or non-opioid pain-relieving drugs.
To gain some insight on some technologies that present an alternative to opioid pain therapies, I spoke with Roger Massengale, vice president and general manager, Acute Pain, at Avanos Medical, an Alpharetta, Ga.-based medical device company focused on delivering breakthrough solutions that will help patients get back to the things that matter. Avanos is committed to creating the next generation of healthcare solutions which will address reducing the use of opioids while helping patients move from surgery to recovery.
Sam Brusco: Why is it so important to reduce or eliminate opioid use among surgical patients?
Roger Massengale: The country is experiencing an epidemic of overuse and abuse of prescription drugs. Opioids prescribed for surgery have played a major role. In postoperative pain management, life-threatening opioid addiction can affect patients in a matter of days. Dependency can begin within just three days of initial opioid use. Even a one-day opioid prescription may post a six percent chance of long-term use, and as many as one in five patients become a routine opioid user after 10 days of narcotic analgesia.
Opioid-based pain medications may also lead to other complications, such as over-sedation and constipation. By reducing opioid use among surgical patients when appropriate, healthcare professionals can contribute to curbing the nationwide opioid epidemic, while enhancing patient outcomes.
Brusco: How is Avanos Medical working to advance non-opioid pain therapies?
Massengale: We currently offer leading therapies for non-opioid pain management. The ON-Q* Pain Relief System is an opioid-sparing elastomeric ambulatory infusion pump system indicated to significantly reduce the need for opioids and provide better pain relief than opioids alone. It delivers a customizable and continuous flow of local anesthetic to a patient's surgical site or in close proximity to peripheral nerves and can be used for up to five days after surgery. Patients treated with ON-Q* may experience faster recovery and less post-operative pain with fewer side effects than patients taking opioids alone.
Avanos’ Coolief Cooled Radiofrequency Treatment offers patients a non-opioid, minimally invasive, non-surgical alternative to treat osteoarthritis (OA) knee pain, and with our recent acquisition of Game Ready, a market leader for cold and compression therapy systems, we are able to provide another innovative non-opioid therapy for surgical patients. In addition, Avanos has increased its R&D spend on new innovations to reduce opioids in this space.
Brusco: Why was Game Ready determined to be a strategic fit? How will Game Ready’s therapy system provide a means to reduce patient opioid use?
Massengale: The acquisition of Game Ready is another step forward in Avanos’ transformation and underscores our commitment to innovative non-opioid therapies. Its product line offers the company another strong weapon in the fight to eliminate or reduce the use of opioids for surgical patients while building on international capabilities and expertise in acute pain management. Game Ready’s cold therapy and compression therapy products can be used with our ON-Q* Pain Relief System as part of a multimodal approach to pain management. The combination of both portfolios will broaden our orthopedic footprint.
Brusco: Do you think the FDA's recently announced “innovation challenge” for medtech alternatives to opioids will make an impact on the crisis? If so, in what way? If not, why?
Massengale: Yes, I think so. Currently available non-opioid medtech therapies already provide patients with pain management solutions with lower opioid use. Recognizing that there is not a “one-size-fits-all” treatment when it comes to pain management, further research, and innovation in medtech holds great potential to playing an even larger role in helping to reduce the scope of the crisis. As a company known for purposeful innovation and the advancement of patient care, we encourage healthcare providers and their patients alike to consider opioid reduction strategies through proven approaches and existing device alternatives, such as ON-Q*, for opioid sparing pain relief.
We have ongoing projects that we intend to submit for this challenge as well.
Brusco: What do you believe is key to the increased adoption of technological alternatives to opioid therapy?
Massengale: Placing a stronger emphasis on physician and patient education and reimbursement on opioid alternatives can help support opioid reduction strategies while providing optimal pain management solutions that get patients back to the things that matter. The overuse and overreliance of opioids after surgery has played a large role in the opioid epidemic. If we can help physicians reduce the number of opioids their patients take after surgery, we may be able to prevent the addiction problem before it starts.