The Medical Association of the State of Alabama (MASA) and the American Medical Association (AMA) have formed a partnership to develop and distribute a statewide educational toolbox designed to help reverse the state's opioid epidemic. Alabama and Rhode Island are the first two states partnering in this pilot program with the AMA.

In 2013, MASA helped pass legislation to reduce prescription drug abuse and diversion. That legislation resulted in Alabama having the largest decrease in the Southeast and the third-largest in the nation regarding use of the most addictive prescription drugs.

"Alabama's physicians recognize we have a serious prescription drug problem," said MASA President David Herrick, MD. "We have made great strides in providing better education on the dangers of prescription drug abuse but there is much more work to be done."

The pilot program will build a toolbox - available online and in print - that incorporates the best information from the AM and MASA. It will be provided to physicians and other health care professionals with data, resources, and practice-specific recommendations they need to enhance their decision-making when caring for patients suffering from chronic or acute pain and opioid use disorders, as well as for patients needing overdose prevention education.

The toolbox is being released in September, and MASA and the AMA and will work together to distribute it.