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White House Director of Drug Policy joins PCSOM roundtable

March 02, 2011 4:00 PM

PIKEVILLE, KY

White House Director of Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske, left, joined Pikeville College School of Osteopathic Medicine (PCSOM) administration, students, faculty and alumni on Feb. 24 to discuss educational programs on substance abuse, especially prescription drug abuse, and the medical school’s approach to training doctors facing these challenges in rural America. Pikeville College President Paul Patton, right, also participated in the event.

The roundtable, hosted by PCSOM, was one of several stops on Kerlikowske’s visit to Kentucky and West Virginia and included public health administrators, physicians and pharmacists, members of the judicial community and representatives from Operation Unite and WestCare Kentucky.

Physician education is a key component to fully addressing the prescription drug issue, and the Office of Drug Control Policy has been reaching out to various healthcare educational and professional societies to address prescriber education.

“Prescription drug abuse and its consequences is the nation’s fastest growing drug problem. The Obama Administration is mounting an unprecedented effort to address this national public health epidemic through a balanced approach of education, monitoring, proper disposal and law enforcement,” said Kerlikowske.

Roundtable participants discussed the current prescription drug abuse situation in Eastern Kentucky, training PCSOM students for practice in the rural environment and collaboration between PCSOM, public health, criminal justice and community partners in addressing prescription drug abuse death.

Thanking the members of the panel and the community participants Kerlikowske said, “We want to help you all get the resources and support you need for us to be able to tell the story of the successes here.”

-PC-