Edward Ellison, MD, Shares Permanente Medicine Approach to Opioid Safety on SiriusXM

Edward M. Ellison, MD, executive medical director and chairman of the board, Southern California Permanente Medical Group, was recently tapped for his opioids expertise in an interview on Doctor Radio Reports on SiriusXM. He and other physician experts spoke with show host Perri Peltz one week after President Trump declared the opioids epidemic a national public health emergency.

Dr. Ellison, who is also co-CEO of The Permanente Federation, shared the core elements of Kaiser Permanente’s Safe and Appropriate Opioid Prescribing Program and the program’s success due to a coordinated, integrated care model. Once the pain syndrome is diagnosed, he explained, it’s a matter of providing the right number of prescriptions and ensuring that the patient truly understands the risks involved.

“It’s a really comprehensive system that involves education for the physician, for the patient, and a system of care for all the specialists,” he said in the radio interview. “Physicians want to do the right thing, and we want to make it easy for them to do the right thing.”

Click here for more about Dr. Ellison’s testimony before the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis. A fact sheet is available for more information about Kaiser Permanente’s approach to opioid safety.