National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) Position Paper on Opioid-Related Deaths

National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) Position Paper on Opioid-Related Deaths

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) engaged CDC’s federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) – known as the CMS Alliance to Modernize Healthcare — to support the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) to update the recommendations for investigating, diagnosing and certifying opioid-related deaths. Research Triangle Institute (RTI International), an alliance partner of the FFRDC, led the project to revise recommendations described in the 2013 position paper from the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) [1]. The revised recommendations are intended to cover the new face of the opioid crisis more fully, including emerging synthetic drugs and interpretation of deaths involving multiple drugs.

A course titled “Investigation & Certification of Drug Toxicity Death” was created as a training resource. This training course includes four modules focusing on the following objectives:

1. Identify the key investigative stages that teams use for conducting a necessary and appropriate death investigation when there is a suspected drug-related death.
2. Describe best practices and challenges related to performing autopsies when there is a suspected drug-related death.
3. Describe the best practices and challenges associated with using toxicological testing for establishing the cause of death.
4. Explain the essential components for consideration when determining the cause and manner of drug-related deaths.

This training offers:

• • 3.75 AMA PRA Category 1 CME Credits
  • 0.4 IACET CEU’s
  • 3.75 ABMDI Credits

To access training for CME through AMA click here.
To access training for ABMDI credit click here.

In support of this effort, RTI worked with NAME to establish a working group of ME/C experts. This working group was charged with improving the information reported on deaths by refining existing recommendations. Discussion focus was placed on evidence-based recommendations for the practice of death investigation and autopsy, toxicological analysis, interpretation of toxicology findings, and death certification. The following subject matter experts participated in the working group:

Acknowledgement: We would like to express great appreciation to all the individuals who made this project possible. We would like to offer special thanks to Dr. Daniel Dye of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, who provided extensive knowledge and expertise to the content development for this training. We would also like to thank the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME) for their support during the development of the position paper and this training. We are particularly grateful for the assistance given by the CDC staff who worked so hard on this project, including Dr. Margaret Warner and Dr. Kelly Brown. We also wish to acknowledge the help provided by the pilot test participants’ who volunteered to evaluate the training, to ensure its effectiveness.

[1] Davis, G. National Association of Medical Examiners Position Paper: Recommendations for the Investigation, Diagnosis, and Certification of Deaths Related to Opioid Drugs. Available at: https://name.memberclicks.net/assets/docs/a8f3230e-d063-4681-8678-e3d15ce9effb.pdf

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