Stader Opioid Consulting

• The overutilization of opioids by clinicians and health systems is one of the major drivers of the nation’s opioid epidemic. In addition to the long-term risks of dependence and addiction associated with opioid use and prescription, the evidence is clear that opioids are ineffective for management of many painful conditions and may, in some cases, complicate pain management. 
• The misconception that opioids are the gold-standard for pain management is outdated and refuted by significant medical research. Multimodal analgesia with nonpharmacologic, nonopioid and opioid options is the gold standard for pain control in 2022 and beyond. Clinicians can use advanced pain management to treat pain more effectively while simultaneously reducing the risks associated with opioid exposure. 
• SOC spearheads the Compass Opioid Stewardship Certificate Program, a national program that advances opioid stewardship and multimodal pain control for primary care providers. 
• Dr. Stader and his team have developed and implemented alternatives to opioids (ie ALTO) programs in emergency departments and hospitals across the nation. Dr. Stader and Rachael Duncan, PharmD founded the nation’s second emergency department ALTO program, published the first academic study showing the effectiveness of emergency department ALTO programs, and created the nation’s first guidelines promoting ALTO as standard of emergency department care. They then went on to expand the success of ALTO into the majority of Colorado emergency departments through the Colorado ALTO Project and helped develop and implement the Hospital Medicine ALTO Project as well. 
• SOC’s clinicians have been leaders in the effort to promote use of multimodal analgesia for other medical specialties, crafting advanced pain management guidelines through the CO’s CURE Initiative for hospitalists, obstetrician-gynecologists, occupational and environmentalists, surgeons and anesthesiologists, dentists, and pharmacists. 
• The consultants at SOC have trained more than one hundred hospitals and thousands of clinicians across the country in advanced pain management. 
• In addition, Dr. Stader has been instrumental in lobbying for federal law to help fund ALTO through the ALTO Act of 2018. 
• SOC is dedicated to helping hospital systems, physician groups and health departments develop and implement effective, evidence-based programs to improve pain management and decrease opioid use.

The misconception that opioids are the gold-standard for pain management is outdated and dangerous. By utilizing multimodal analgesia with alternatives to opioids (ALTO), clinicians can treat pain more effectively while simultaneously reducing the risks associated with opioid exposure. Dr. Stader and his team have developed and implemented ALTO programs in  emergency departments and hospitals across the nation. Dr. Stader and Rachael Duncan, PharmD founded the nation’s second emergency department ALTO program, published the first academic study showing the effectiveness of emergency department ALTO programs and created the nation’s first guidelines promoting ALTO as standard of emergency department care. SOC’s clinicians have been leaders in efforts to promote use of multimodal analgesia and ALTO programs for  other medical specialties, crafting pain management guidelines for hospitalists, obstetrician-gynecologists, surgeons, anesthesiologists and dentists, with guidelines for other specialties currently under development. The consultants at SOC have trained more than one hundred hospitals and thousands of clinicians across the country. In addition, Dr. Stader has been instrumental in lobbying for federal law to help fund ALTO. SOC is dedicated to helping hospital systems, physician groups and health departments develop and implement effective, evidence-based programs to improve pain management and decrease opioid use.

• Opioid overdose is the leading killer of Americans under the age of 50. More than 2 million people in the United States have opioid use disorder (OUD), and more than 10 million report misusing opioids in the past year. While OUD is all-too-common, access to treatment is not. The vast majority of people with OUD do not receive evidence-based treatment, and many hospitals, emergency departments and health systems do not offer medication for addiction treatment (MAT).
• MAT with methadone, buprenorphine or naltrexone dramatically improves patient care. The evidence behind MAT is robust and has been shown to:
  • Reduce mortality by as much as 70%
  • Decrease transmission of blood-borne pathogens (hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV)
  • Decrease the incidence of soft tissue infections and endocarditis
  • Decrease criminality by 80% 
  • Dramatically improve the quality of life for people with OUD
• SOC has the experience and expertise necessary to assist hospital systems and states in developing and implementing MAT programs. 
  • In Colorado, SOC worked with the Colorado Hospital Association and the Colorado Office of Behavioral Health to create ColoradoMAT.org, a statewide plan with tools to implement MAT in hospitals statewide. Spearheading the CO’s CURE initiative, SOC developed MAT guidelines for more than a dozen medical specialties. 
  • We have helped hospitals launch buprenorphine programs and collaborated with our partners at OpiSafe to help hospitals and MAT providers connect with one another to facilitate patient care. In addition, 
  • Dr. Stader and SOC have been leaders in integrating recovery support specialists into Colorado emergency departments, securing grant funding to integrate recovery support into emergency department practice. 

For health care clinicians and organizations whose aim is to develop and implement MAT initiatives, build systems of care for OUD or integrate recovery support specialists into their practice models, SOC’s consulting expertise is a valuable resource.

• SOC is committed to educating clinicians, patients and families on the principles of harm reduction, including access to naloxone and overdose education. 
  • As the opioid epidemic has transitioned from prescription to illicit opioids and the rapid growth of fentanyl-based products, the importance of harm reduction strategies has grown. 
  • Better safety education for patients who inject drugs and access to syringe exchange saves lives and protects the health of these vulnerable patients until they are ready to enter treatment. 
  • Access to naloxone and overdose education is a common sense, evidence-based approach to decrease overdose deaths and is endorsed by the Surgeon General, the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association and numerous other organizations.
• SOC is a leader in bringing harm reduction principles and practices to hospitals and clinicians. 
  • The consultants of SOC wrote the first medical guidelines championing harm reduction as a pillar of care to address the opioid epidemic. SOC clinicians wrote the first hospital guidelines championing take home naloxone as a new standard of care and Dr. Stader has been successful in writing and passing state laws that help hospitals implement harm reduction practices. 
  • In 2020, SOC founded the Colorado Naloxone Project (CNP), one of the most ambitious efforts in the nation to address the opioid overdose crisis by recruiting Colorado hospitals and emergency departments to distribute naloxone to at-risk patients prior to discharge. The CNP has helped over 100 hospitals throughout Colorado develop and implement take-home naloxone programs, and provided over 10,000 doses of donated naloxone via grants. 
  • Dr. Stader is a well-known national lecturer on harm reduction and advocates for facilitating collaboration between harm reduction agencies and hospitals. 

SOC can provide guidance on incorporating harm reduction into any clinical practice setting and is prepared to assist private and public health care organizations in developing and implementing effective, sustainable naloxone distribution and harm reduction programs.

• SOC recognizes the importance of creating policies and guidelines that are evidence-based, work for clinicians and health systems and improve patient care. 
  • Dr. Stader and his team at SOC have been national leaders in creating guidelines aimed at limiting opioid use and prescription, promoting use of alternatives to opioids (ALTO) and providing optimal care for patients with opioid use disorder (OUD). 
  • SOC spearheaded one of the nation’s largest and most collaborative guideline-writing projects, CO’s CURE (The Colorado Opioid Solution: Clinician’s United to Resolve the Epidemic. The CURE initiative brought together 10+ medical subspecialty societies in an effort to write guidelines that coordinate the efforts of multiple specialties around the pillars of limiting opioids, ALTO, harm reduction and treatment of OUD. Guidelines were produced for emergency medicine, surgery, hospitalist medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, occupational medicine, dentistry and pharmacy. 
  • Dr. Stader is the editor-in-chief of COACEP’s 2017 Opioid Prescribing & Treatment Guidelines, which helped launch ALTO as a nationwide movement and led to the creation of the Colorado ALTO project, which has trained over 90% of Colorado hospitals in ALTO implementation. 
  • Dr. Stader is an editor of the nation’s first naloxone guidelines for hospitals. 
• In addition, SOC has worked with individual hospitals, clinics, physician groups, and health systems to adopt and implement comprehensive opioid stewardship guidelines to specific patient populations. 
• For states and organizations looking to craft policies and guidelines or adopt evidence-based practice in any area related to opioid stewardship, SOC can provide experience and expertise.  

• Dr. Stader and Rachael Duncan, PharmD are well-known national lecturers on the topics of ALTO, opioid stewardship, harm reduction and medication for addiction treatment (MAT). 
• In addition to their efforts on the speaking circuit, the team at SOC are enthusiastic supporters of durable, free open-access medical education (FOAM). Dr. Stader is the founder of the Emergency Medical Minute, a 501c3 nonprofit medical podcasting organization which frequently produces content for clinicians aimed at addressing the opioid epidemic. 
• In 2021, SOC launched an educational series on harm reduction in support of the Naloxone Project called The Antidote. 
• Founder and president of Triage Films, a physician-owned documentary film company, Dr. Stader produced the Emmy award-winning film 24/7/365: The Evolution of Emergency Medicine, Palliative and Emmy Award Nominated Dying in your Mother’s Arms.  As a former high school science teacher, Dr. Stader believes that to have maximal impact, education must be entertaining and thought-provoking; with that guiding conviction, he’s produced 3 award winning documentaries, dozens of podcasts, motion animation videos and training videos. 
• The members of SOC are available to speak at events on a range of topics and to help organizations develop innovative, durable audio or visual educational materials. Please see samples of our audio & video materials on our previous work below.