Safe Controlled Substance Prescribing CME for Osteopathic Physicians (3 AOA Category 1-A Credits)

At the conclusion of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Analyze federal and state-controlled-substance prescribing requirements to support Systems-Based Practice workflow compliance for PDMP use and related safety processes.

2. Apply evidence-based principles of pain management and appropriate prescribing to clinical practice to minimize patient risk.

3. Contrast clinical strategies for managing acute pain with multimodal interventions versus palliative medicine approaches for serious illness.

4. Implement validated screening and response protocols for patients exhibiting signs of substance abuse or addiction.

5. Evaluate ethical, legal, and whole-person clinical frameworks for providing comprehensive end-of-life care, including patient values, function, psychosocial context, and interdisciplinary care considerations relevant to osteopathic medical practice.

Prescribing Essentials: Principles in Safe and Responsible Medication Use

Who it is for: osteopathic physicians who hold a DEA registration or prescribe controlled substances. MDs, PAs, and NPs: take the [standard ACCME CME version of this course].

Credit: 3.0 AOA Category 1-A credits. LMU-DCOM designates this program for a maximum of 3.0 AOA Category 1-A credits.

Length: 3 hours, online, self-paced, unlimited post-test attempts.

Certificate: issued immediately on completion. Reported to CE Broker within 24 business hours where your board uses it.

State opioid and pain management CME requirements this course satisfies

Most state osteopathic and medical boards now require DEA-registered DOs to complete opioid, pain management, or controlled substance CME each renewal. This course covers the topics those mandates name: PDMP use, prescribing limits, risk screening, multimodal pain management, and substance use disorder response.

About this course

This course reviews core U.S. prescriber education topics relevant to safe and compliant controlled-substance prescribing, evidence-based acute pain management, palliative care principles, and identification and response to substance use disorder. Learners will connect federal requirements and common state-level prescribing expectations (e.g., PDMP checks where required, documentation, and prescribing-limit policies that vary by jurisdiction) to practical clinical decision-making, including multimodal analgesia strategies and risk-screening workflows. The goal is to support safer prescribing practices that reduce preventable harm while maintaining appropriate symptom control across acute, chronic, and end-of-life contexts. Osteopathic physicians face ongoing risk from rapidly changing legal requirements, variable workflow implementation, and inconsistent uptake of evidence-based pain and addiction practices. This activity addresses those gaps by translating key mandates and clinical principles into usable processes for daily practice.

This activity is designed for Osteopathic physicians and addresses federal requirements and widely adopted best practices. For osteopathic physicians, the course also emphasizes whole-person, patient centered clinical reasoning by integrating biologic, behavioral, functional, social, and end of life considerations into safer prescribing, pain management, and substance use disorder response workflows.

Terminology Note: Prescription drug monitoring programs are commonly referred to as PDMPs (terminology varies by state; some jurisdictions use “PMP”). In this course, PDMP refers to the state-level controlled-substance prescription monitoring registry used to support safer prescribing and compliance workflows.