We are facing a national crisis. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, each day more than 130 people in the United States die from an opioid overdose. How are health care professionals tackling this issue?

On this episode of “Inside Health Care,” we chat with Dr. Daniel Alford, Professor of Medicine and course director for Boston University School of Medicine’s “SCOPE of Pain” safer opioid-prescribing program. SCOPE of Pain is a series of continuing medical/nursing education activities designed to help safely and effectively manage patients with acute and/or chronic pain with opioid analgesics, when appropriate.

In this episode, Dr. Alford discusses how SCOPE of Pain addresses medical school and residency teaching gaps by training health care professionals—more than 160,000 thus far—how to prescribe and use opioids safely and effectively. Dr. Alford also discusses how to maximize the benefits and minimize the harms of opioids and proposes his solution to ending the opioid crisis.

Listen to the episode below to hear more—and don’t forget to rate us where you listen to podcasts!