What Happens When Regulators Don't Trust Clinicians?

USA Today published an interesting point/counterpoint this week on the question of whether doctors should be forced to check a prescription drug-monitoring database prior to writing a prescription for an opioid. The advocates for such an approach (me included) argue that fundamental public health concerns trump the arguments against mandatory checks, primarily that this new step in the process of clinical delivery presents privacy and convenience hurdles. But if one examines the true concerns of clinicians who have pushed back against mandatory PDMP checks, one would find a deeper, more meani...