I think this creates an interesting discussion on the part of the designers and programmers. Did they understand that what they were building was going to increase opioid dependence? Did they ask about it? And, the most interesting question of all: If they found out that was the case did they try to justify building it to themselves in some way? Full disclaimer: I have built software that I had ethical reservations a…
I'm a doctor. During medical school and residency, I was taught in good faith that "only as much as necessary" opioid was OK to give and wouldn't create dependence - it was only an "excess" of opioid that would cause a problem. So under the banner of reducing the suffering of our patients, and a mandate to reduce patient-reported pain scores, opioids flowed relatively freely. Now we know that was a terrible idea with…
Practice Fusion knew that at the time. Internal emails released as part of the legal process make it clear that this feature was designed to get previously "opioid naive" patient (people not previously prescribed opioids) hooked on extended release opioids. This was specifically done to address the falling rates of ERO prescriptions, which the pharma company described as being due to "political reasons".