Integrating Care for Pain and Substance Use Disorders via Interprofessional Case Conferences

Patients with pain, serious illness and co-occurring substance use disorders (SUD), particularly opioid use disorder (OUD), experience fragmented, suboptimal care, exacerbating negative health outcomes.

Interprofessional case conferences (ICCs) can address the complex needs of this patient population by fostering collaborative coordinated care among clinicians across multiple disciplines. This article examines three innovative ICCs: the Geriatrics, Palliative, Addiction, and Pain (GPAP) Collaborative at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Interdisciplinary Pain Conference (IPC) at the University of Kentucky, and Managing Addiction and Pain in Palliative Interdisciplinary Teams (MAPPIT), a national virtual forum.

We synthesize experiences, insights, and survey data from the creation, development, execution, and assessment of three ICCs designed to address systemic care fragmentation and clinician barriers to managing patients with co-occurring SUD, pain, and serious illness.

Strategies to promote effective ICCs, including garnering institutional support, managing logistical considerations for busy clinicians, and enhancing interdisciplinary collaboration are reviewed. ICCs directly address clinician discomfort, care fragmentation, and educational gaps, and survey data demonstrate these ICCs foster patient-centered treatment, increase collaboration, and improve clinician confidence in the management of co-occurring pain, serious illness, and SUD.