Kona campus tackling opioid crisis on Big Island

Students at the University of Washington MEDEX Northwest Physician Assistant Program’s Kona campus will participate in a full-day Buprenorphine training this Friday.

Students will learn how Buprenorphine is used in the treatment of opioid use disorder in preparation for their primary care clinical rotations. The training will occur in the main classroom of the MEDEX Northwest Kona campus in Kealakekua.

“Primary care providers know their patients best,” notes project co-leader Dr. Pamela Pentin. “MDs, NPs, PAs, you name it, primary care providers are uniquely situated to treat people with OUD (opioid use disorder) as a natural part of what we already do. We treat tobacco and alcohol addictions all day every day, so how is treating opioid addiction with Buprenorphine any different?”

Some 100,000 Americans died of a drug overdose in 2022, most involving opioids like oxycodone, heroin, and fentanyl. About 250 of the dead last year were Hawai‘i residents, while many more Hawaiians are regularly hospitalized for life-threatening opioid overdoses and for other medical complications of addiction.

“Buprenorphine is a safe, synthetic opioid replacement drug available by prescription,” explains Dr. Orlowski. “It’s dispensed by community pharmacies and taken by patients under the tongue. It allows individuals to achieve sobriety where methadone clinics and hospital-based addiction services don’t exist.”

And yet the drug has remained under-prescribed and under-utilized for the past two decades, Dr. Orlowski explained, primarily due to stigma.

Less than 10% of physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners nationwide prescribe Buprenorphine for opioid use disorder.

But for Drs. Pentin and Orlowski, change is underway.

In keeping with that effort, the training team will arrive on the MEDEX Kona campus on Friday, April 14 to provide initial Buprenorphine training to the 2024 MEDEX Northwest student cohort.