Returning Morphine Equivalence information for Prescriptions/Dispenses

Hi Jennifer,

Thank-you for your post. It is quite timely! We've been receiving a great number of similar inquiries,especially as the soon to be released Canadian Guidelines for Use of Opioids in Chronic Non-Cancer Pain provide recommendations in milligram morphine equivalents.

We are planning to launch a working group soon to explore the clinical requirements (who needs this information) and technical requirements (how will we get this information to clinicians at the point of care). I'm just in the planning stage for the working group - so please watch the forum for further information, and how you can participate.

Kind regards,
Seema

I have not seen this information being returned to users from our system. our DUR engine does min/max dosing alerts among other things. I have emailed our vendor to ask about availability of morphine equivalence data but I don't think it is something that we currently would be sending to users.

We are looking for guidance from the HL7 standards on how morphine equivalence information should be returned within the HL7 messaging?

We are wondering if any jurisdictions are currently returning morphine equivalence information back to pharmacists for prescriptions and dispenses entered into the jurisdictional EHR , and what elements they are using to returning the information?

If the Hl7 standard does not currently support a method for returning morphine equivalence information does Infoway/HL7 have any plans to adopt any additional messaging standards or extend the current HL7 standard to help the jurisdictions with the Canadian National Opioid Strategy?