Opioid Manager™, created and developed by UHN's Dr. Andrea Furlan, is a mobile application for physicians to use with patients to help them with pain management and prescribing opioids. (Photo: UHN)
When pain specialist Dr. Andrea Furlan realized some physicians were prescribing pain relief medication opioid without enough knowledge to do so accurately, she wanted to take action.
"There is a huge issue in Ontario with patients not receiving the appropriate opioid treatment for their pain symptoms," said Furlan, who works at Toronto Rehab. "This stems from some physicians lacking the knowledge to appropriately prescribe opioids without increasing the risks of overdose or addiction."
Canadian physicians are given opioid guidelines and paper algorithms to help them decide how much opioids to give and how to screen patients at increased risk of overdose and addiction. What the paper algorithms don't do is to calculate the risk scores or to switch from one opioid to another.
Furlan saw this as an opportunity to develop a mobile application for physicians to use with their patients to help them with pain management and prescribing opioids. The application is called
Opioid Manager™ and is available on iTunes.
MED Showcase
On May 22, Furlan will present her app and her experience developing it in the Mobile MED Showcase at Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.
There will also be a presentation from the creators of KidList - a prize-winning app project from the Hacking Health for Kids 2014 Hackathon that facilitates communication between the Pediatric Advanced Care Team (PACT) at SickKids.
If you are interested in attending the Mobile MED Showcase event on May 22 from 5:30 – 8 p.m., located at Toronto Rehab, 2nd Floor Auditorium, 550 University Ave., please register below:
- If you are a healthcare professional from:
- UHN
- SickKids
- Mount Sinai Hospital
- St. Michael's Hospital
- or Women's College Hospital
You may register for free by emailing info@mobilemed.io through your institutional email address.
2) Otherwise, you may register here:
http://www.meetup.com/MobileMED/events/178086302/
