Opioid Manager

Published: January 2011

The Opioid Manager is a point-of-care tool for health-care providers to safely and effectively manage their patients with chronic non-cancer pain, including pain related to a work injury. It’s available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, as a chart insert (PDF), an iOS app or for electronic medical record (EMR) platforms.

The Opioid Manager, produced and housed at the Michael G. DeGroote National Pain Centre at McMaster University, distils onto one double-sided page the essential information and advice from the 2010 Canadian Guideline for Safe and Effective Use of Opioids for Chronic Non-Cancer Pain. The Institute for Work & Health (IWH) contributed to the systematic research review leading to the guideline, and IWH Scientist Dr. Andrea Furlan led the development of the Opioid Manager to make it easier for clinicians to apply the guidelines in practice.

The two-page tool consists of four parts:

  • Before you write your first script
  • Initiation trial
  • Maintenance and monitoring
  • When is it time to decrease the dose or stop the opioid completely?

Note that the 2010 guideline has been superseded by the 2017 Canadian Guidelines for Opioids for Chronic Pain. The Opioid Manager has not yet been updated to reflect the contents in the newer guideline.

Who should use the tool

The Opioid Manager is designed for health professionals who prescribe opioids for chronic non-cancer pain. Using the prompts, checklists and charts provided in the tool, the Opioid Manager helps determine the appropriate opioid prescription (if any) for patients experiencing non-cancer pain.

All versions of the Opioid Manager are available from the Michael G. DeGroote National Pain Centre at McMaster University.