With the country’s opioid epidemic continuing to worsen, Alexis M. LaPietra, DO, an emergency physician at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey, will show practitioners how to effectively manage acute and chronic muscular pain without using these highly addictive drugs—and get compensated for it—in “Alternatives to Opioids for Pain Management: Meds, Needles, and Your Hands.”

“I will review evidence-based alternative medications and modalities that physicians can easily use in the emergency room,” Dr. LaPietra said. In particular, she will discuss multimodal analgesia for musculoskeletal pain, as well as how to perform trigger-point injections and osteopathic manipulative medicine. By also providing billing and coding information, her session will fully equip attendees to start employing the modalities immediately.

“An emergency physician’s toolbox contains many alternatives; most opioids can be reserved as a second-line or rescue medication only,” said Dr. LaPietra, who has formal training in pain management. “Opioids are no longer the only option we have to battle pain.”

Dr. LaPietra is the founder and chair of the ACEP Pain Management Section, as well as one of the founders of the nationally recognized Alternatives to Opioids (ALTO) Program, which endorses many of the techniques she’ll discuss. By implementing this program, her institution decreased opioid use in its emergency department by more than 40 percent in the first three months post-implementation.

Alexis M. LaPietra, DO

Alternatives to Opioids for Pain Management:

Meds, Needles, and Your Hands
Monday, Oct. 30
1-1:25 p.m.
WCC, Ballroom A