Opioid REMS Education: A Patient-Centered Pain Management Guide for the Interprofessional Team
ACPE Number: 0204-0000-25-411-H08-P
Content Release Date: November 25, 2025 Expiration Date: October 31, 2026
Activity Type: Application-based
CE Credits: 2.0 contact hours
Activity Fee: Free
This presentation was live October 2025 and will be offered again in April 2026. You may only claim credit for one occurence of this activity.
Activity Overview
While there continues to be an epidemic of opioid-related overdose deaths, many patients experience acute or chronic pain, making it crucial for clinicians to understand how to appropriately treat pain, while reducing opioid-associated risks. Not all clinicians are intimately familiar with the FDA’s Opioid Analgesic Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), which is essential in order to ensure that patients receive and understand the Medication Guides and information regarding the safe use of these products. This educational activity is highly relevant to interprofessional clinicians involved in the care of patients receiving opioid analgesic therapy, nonpharmacologic therapies, and non-opioid therapies for pain in hospitals, health systems and ambulatory care centers to appropriately manage pain and support the safe use of medication therapy for the treatment of pain.
The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education as a provider of continuing pharmacy education with Commendation.
The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists designates this live activity for a maximum of 2.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
The target audience for these educational activities is physicians, pharmacists, physician associates and nurse practitioners (prescribers and non-prescribers involved in the care of patients receiving opioid analgesic therapy, nonpharmacologic therapies, and non-opioid medication therapies).
Compare risks versus benefits of opioid analgesics and other pain treatments to ensure safe and effective medication use that aligns with the Opioid Analgesic REMS requirements.
Apply evidenced based methods to provide individualized screening, identification, and early treatment to patients with opioid use disorder.
Implement patient-centered methods for comprehensive pain management treatment discussion with patients.
Assess appropriateness of an opioid taper taking into consideration best practices for tapering and patient specific factors.
Counsel patients and caregivers about the safe use of opioid therapy, methods to reduce risks, and proper storage and disposal of the medications..
Christopher M. Herndon, PharmD, BCACP Professor Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Edwardsville, Illinois
Charles E. Argoff, MD Professor of Neurology, Director Pain Management Fellowship Albany Medical Center Director Comprehensive Pain Management Center Albany, New York
In accordance with our accreditor’s Standards of Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, ASHP requires that all individuals in control of content disclose all financial relationships with ineligible companies. An individual has a relevant financial relationship if they have had a financial relationship with an ineligible company in any dollar amount in the past 24 months and the educational content that the individual controls is related to the business lines or products of the ineligible company.
An ineligible company is any entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing health care goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients. The presence or absence of relevant financial relationships will be disclosed to the activity audience. The following persons in control of this activity’s content have relevant financial relationships:
Christopher M. Herndon: Perrigo – direct ownership of stock
Charles E. Argoff:
Principal Investigator: AbbVie, Lilly, Lundbeck, Vertex
All other persons in control of content do not have any relevant financial relationships with an ineligible company. As defined by the Standards of Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education definition of ineligible company. All relevant financial relationships have been mitigated prior to the CE activity.
A faculty slide presentation with active learning and faculty discussion
Supplementary materials
A post-assessment (a score of at least 70% is required)
An evaluation completed on the ASHP Learning Center Portal.
Participants must participate in the activity in its entirety to claim continuing pharmacy education credit online at the ASHP eLearning Portal. Follow the prompts to complete the post-assessment and evaluation, claim credit, and view the statement of credit immediately after completing the activity.
Claim CE Within 60 Days
Per ACPE requirements, CPE credit must be claimed within 60 days of being earned. Claim CE (enter the CE code announced during activity and complete the evaluation).
Once you have processed and claimed your CE credit, we encourage you to check your NABP eProfile account to verify that your credit has posted before the ACPE 60-day deadline.
After ACPE's 60 day deadline, ASHP will no longer be able to report credits for this activity.
There is also an option to download an ASHP Statement of Completion for this REMS-compliant activity.
Provided by ASHP
This activity is supported by an independent educational grant from the Opioid Analgesic REMS Program Companies (RPC). Please see https://www.opioidanalgesicrems.com/Resources/Docs/List_of_RPC_Companies.pdf for a listing of REMS Program Companies. This activity is intended to be fully compliant with the Opioid Analgesic REMS education requirements issued by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA).
