Combating the Opioid Crisis: Power of #ChoosePT

At APTA CSM I was asked why Net Health, an information technology company, supports and endorses the #ChoosePT campaign.

First off, we are not just an IT company; rather, we focus on software solutions for specialized outpatient care. Specifically, the ReDoc application supports the business needs of PT, OTs, and SLP. Net Health’s mission is to improve healthcare and our employees believe in social responsibility. Although the purchasers of our solutions are practitioners, the ultimate recipient of our technology is the patient.

The opioid epidemic effects our practitioners, their patients, and society at large.  It is impossible to turn on the news and not hear another tragic story of addiction leading to death. Opioid-related overdoses killed more than 42,000 Americans. That’s an average of 115 deaths every day. “We want America to understand this is a problem,” Surgeon General Jerome Adams said in an interview that aired March 1, 2018, on NPR’s Morning Edition prior to the Opioid White House Summit. “The majority of the public does not see the opioid epidemic as rising to the level of an emergency, so it’s important that we continue to say at the highest levels, this is a problem in all communities and it’s getting worse.” His call to action was “there is something that every one of your listeners can do. They can get engaged, they can talk about addiction in their communities, they can understand pain better.”

The ChoosePT campaign is an influential tool to educate the public of another path. It enlightens patients that opioid medication is not the only solution to pain management. It reminds patients that they are powerful and have a choice in making medical decisions on their own behalf. Disseminating a message of choice is a vital component in combating this crisis.

At Net Health we have collected a variety of stories that illustrates the hopeful side of pain relief. We have documented the journey to full recovery that patients have experienced without the need for long-term opioid use. We hope that by sharing these stories we can increase the adoption of alternative treatments for pain management.

Renee Vandall, Vice President of Marketing at Net Health, is a Sales and Marketing virtuoso in healthcare technology. With 20+ years experience marketing specialized EMR solutions, Renee presents a slew of topical industry insights.