ONLINE PRESCRIBER EDUCATION NETWORK (OPEN)

Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Grant Program
The Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Grant Program was created to educate health care professionals about pharmaceutical industry marketing practices and to provide tools for accessing unbiased sources of information about prescription drugs. The program is funded through the 2004 Attorneys General settlement resolving allegations that Warner Lambert violated state consumer protection laws when promoting Neurontin for off-label uses.

As a program grantee, the Federation of State Medical Boards Foundation has developed and implemented a Web-based portal the Online Prescriber Education Network (OPEN) to provide accredited continuing medical education courses developed by other program grantees. In cooperation with the FSMB 70 member state medical and osteopathic boards, these modules are offered to enhance the protection of the public and improve the quality of health care.

Through the OPEN portal, all licensed physicians in the nation will have access to educational programs about pharmaceutical industry marketing techniques and their effect on prescribing practices. In addition, the portal will provide access to relevant state and federal statutes, unbiased databases of information about the safety and efficacy of prescription medications, reporting mechanisms for adverse events related to medications and tools and strategies for evidence-based prescribing

The Attorney General Consumer and Prescriber Education Grant Program was created as part of a 2004 consumer protection settlement with Warner-Lambert (a division of Pfizer, Inc.) that resolved allegations of deceptive off-label marketing of the drug Neurontin. More than $9 million is being distributed to grant recipients from the program. The FSMB Foundation is one of 24 first-round grant recipients. The FSMB Foundation has developed and implemented the Online Prescriber Education Network (OPEN), a Web-based portal that will provide educational programs to practicing physicians about pharmaceutical industry marketing techniques and their effect on prescribing practices. Other grant recipients are developing accredited educational modules that will be available through the OPEN portal to all licensed medical prescribers in the nation.

Attorney Generals Grant Advisory Board Members:

• Alfred V. Anderson, MD Minnesota Board of Medical Practice
• Myra Christopher, Center for Practical Bioethics
• J. Ramsay Farah, MD, MPH Maryland Board of Physicians
• Curt D. Furberg, MD, PhD Wake Forest University School of Medicine
• Doris Griffin, West Virginia Board of Medicine
• Robert Lubran, MS, MPA Center for Substance Abuse Treatment

FSMB Staff:

• Kelly C. Alfred, MS - Federation of State Medical Boards
• Lisa Robin, Federation of State Medical Boards

OPEN Grant Recipients:

• American Medical Association
• Brigham & Womens Hospital
• Dartmouth College
• Federation of State Medical Boards
• Foundation Georgetown University
• Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
• Hektoen Institute
• Kaiser Health Plan of Colorado
• Lovelace Clinic Foundation
• Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professionals
• Meyers Primary Care Institute
• National Center for Farmworker Health
• Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
• Oregon Health Policy and Research
• Portland VA Research Foundation
• University of Alabama-Birmingham
• University of Arizona
• University of California San Francisco
• University of Georgia School of Pharmacy
• University of Kentucky
• University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
• University of Washington
• University of Vermont
• Wake Forest University

OPEN Resources:

• Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
• ClinicalTrials.gov
• Drugs@FDA
• FDA Adverse Event Reporting System
• Internet Prescribing Law and Language by State
• Pain Management Overview by State
• PubMed.gov
• National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators
• National Association of State Controlled Substances Authorities
• United States Drug Enforcement Administration