Supporting Clinicians in Utah: Working Together to Utilize Safe Opioid Prescribing Guidelines

An interview with Parveen Ghani, MBBS, MPH, MS, Health Program Specialist III, Division of Professional Licensing, State of Utah.

by Anna Morgan-Barsamian, MPH, RN, PMP, Senior Manager, Training & Education, NaRCAD

Tags: Opioid Safety, Evidence Based, Training

Anna: Hi Parveen! You’re one of our training alumni who’s built a strong program over the past few years. We’re thrilled to be able to catch up with you! Can you tell us about yourself?

Parveen: I’m trained as a physician and have always wanted to work in public health. It was important to me to be able to make a difference in people’s lives.

I currently work in the Division of Professional Licensing at the Department of Commerce in Utah. I've been working as an academic detailer since my NaRCAD training a few years ago.

Anna: It sounds like the rest is history! Are there other detailers on your team who are helping you meet your program goals?
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Parveen: I’m a full-time detailer for our AD program along with my colleague, Marie Frankos. We work with many of the same prescribers over multiple detailing visits and build strong connections with them. 

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Anna: Can you talk to us about your detailing work in overdose prevention?

Parveen: Opioid overdose in the State of Utah is exceptionally high. We’re currently working with prescribers on the safe prescribing of opioids. Our state’s prescription drug monitoring program is called the Controlled Substance Database Program (CSD). The CSD includes both a Patient Dashboard and Prescriber Dashboard.

The Patient Dashboard is an electronic clinical decision-making tool that grants prescribers access to information regarding controlled substance prescriptions for individual patients. It contains records of a patient’s poisoning or overdose and any violations associated with a controlled substance. The Prescriber Dashboard, on the other hand, tracks each clinician's prescribing patterns and CSD utilization behavior.
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Anna: We’ve seen a lot of success with detailing programs who work with clinicians to navigate their state’s prescription drug monitoring program, like your CSD. Does your state require prescribers to look at this database?

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Parveen: Yes. According to the Utah Controlled Substances Act,

(a) A prescriber shall check the database for information about a patient before the first time the prescriber gives a prescription to a patient for a Schedule II opioid or a Schedule III opioid.

(b) If a prescriber is repeatedly prescribing a Schedule II opioid or Schedule III opioid to a patient, the prescriber shall periodically review information about the patient in:

(i) the database; or (ii) other similar records of controlled substances the patient has filled.

Anna: It’s so important to support prescribers in using a database like this, especially when there are mandates in place. What is the overall goal of your AD program?

Parveen: The goal of our AD program is to provide recommendations to prescribers regarding best practices in the utilization of the CSD per the Controlled Substance Database Act. This includes identifying individual prescriber’s prescribing and dispensing patterns of controlled substances, identifying prescribers who are prescribing in an unprofessional or unlawful manner, and identifying polypharmacy, doctor shopping, poisoning, or overdoses.
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Anna: It sounds like your AD program is working hard to support clinicians in CSD utilization. What kind of resources have you developed for clinicians that work towards your program’s overall goal, and how do you make these materials accessible?

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Parveen: We’ve created a toolkit that acts as a guide to help clinicians utilize the database and different resources within the community. During our in-person visits, we provide hard copies of materials that include screenshots of how to create a CSD account, reset CSD account passwords, and navigate the dashboards within the CSD. During our virtual AD sessions, we send these materials electronically. Additionally, we provide our contact information for further technical assistance, including our personal phone number, work phone number, and email address. 

We've made our toolkit available on our website along with prescriber FAQs. We’re continuing to update our website with helpful materials for clinicians.

Anna: Making resources like this so accessible is key. Can you share some reflections on visits where you felt like you made a difference or were able to offer technical assistance?
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Parveen: I love helping prescribers, even if it is something as simple as walking them through the log-in process or resetting a password. I’ve had clinicians bring their entire medical team in for a detailing visit so that I can show everyone in the office how to use the database.
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One prescriber even told me after a visit that they would be sharing my name with a colleague and that I should expect a call to schedule a detailing visit. It’s lovely to get these types of referrals from the clinicians.

Anna: Prescribers feeling thankful and impressed with your 1:1 support enough to refer you to their colleagues is a huge success! Let’s wrap up with one more question - what’s one tip you’d give to another academic detailer?

Parveen: Find ways to collaborate. We can’t do it alone! Start working together with other programs and share information, especially community resources. We can really make a difference if we work together.
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Anna: I couldn’t agree more. Making community connections and sharing information allows for great success in accomplishing goals for both small and large initiatives. Our AD community will be able to glean a lot from your program’s successes, and we look forward to sharing more of your team’s expertise in the future.

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You can head on over to our Discussion Forum to continue the conversation!

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Biography. Parveen Ghani has over eight years of work experience in public health. She obtained her Master in Public Health degree (MPH) from Walden University (Minneapolis, Minnesota). Following this, she worked for four years with the Office of Minority Health for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Service. Parveen relocated to Idaho Falls in 2015 with her husband and began to pursue her career in bioinformatics. She obtained her master’s degree in Biomedical Informatics from the University of Utah in May 2018. Shortly after graduation, she started working as an Academic Detailing Specialist with the Division of Professional Licensing (DOPL), Salt Lake City, Utah. Before moving to the United States, Parveen earned her medical degree (MBBS) from Dhaka Medical College, Bangladesh. While not licensed in the United States, Parveen has worked as a physician in Bangladesh, Ireland, and Australia. Parveen enjoys working with the prescribers on the safe prescribing of opioids. Parveen loves to exercise, walk, read, play the piano, and play with her pet kitty in her leisure time.

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