Faculty celebrates a decade of safer, evidence-based opioid prescribing
The Faculty of Pain Medicine (FPM) is celebrating the tenth anniversary of the FPM Opioid Calculator, a pioneering smartphone application that supports safer prescribing decisions and helps to reduce the risk of compounding inaccuracies that can lead to significant patient harm.
Released in 2015, the app was designed to improve consistency and accuracy in opioid dose calculation. It supports clinicians to calculate oral morphine equivalent daily doses (oMEDD) across multiple opioid medications and strengthen safer, evidence-based prescribing.
It not only reduces susceptibility to miscalculation, misinterpretation and compounding inaccuracies but plays a critical role in strengthening opioid stewardship at the point of care.
A defining feature of the Opioid Calculator is its traffic light warning system, which alerts clinicians when opioid doses reach escalating risk thresholds. By clearly identifying green, amber and red zones, the system reinforces clinical caution. The Opioid Calculator is a functional adaptation of the Opioid Dose Equivalence table researched, developed and endorsed by the faculty’s education committee. Its calculations align with the faculty’s professional document PS01 (PM) Opioid analgesics in chronic non-cancer pain and its appendices, ensuring direct consistency with best-practice, evidence-based guidance.
Since its release, clinicians have downloaded the Opioid Calculator more than 126,000 times across Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the US, and more than 100 other countries and regions, reflecting its widespread adoption as a trusted tool in contemporary clinical practice.
Specialist pain medicine physician and palliative care generalist, Dr Jonathan Ramachenderan (FFPMANZCA, FRACGP), says the app has remained central to his clinical decision-making.
“The Opioid Calculator was central to my practice as a general practitioner and now as a pain specialist. It ensures the right equal analgesic dose which is essential for patient safety and opioid stewardship.”
As the faculty marks the Opioid Calculator’s tenth anniversary its sustained use reflects leadership in advancing clinical safety and continues to underpin safe, accountable and consistent opioid prescribing across clinical settings.
