Executive Summary: American Association of Clinical Chemistry Laboratory Medicine Practice Guideline—Using Clinical Laboratory Tests to Monitor Drug Therapy in Pain Management Patients

The AACC Academy, formerly the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry, has developed a laboratory medicine practice guideline (LMPG)¹⁰ for using laboratory tests to monitor drug therapy in pain management patients. The purpose of this guideline was to compile evidence-based recommendations for the use of laboratory and point-of-care (POC) urine drug tests for relevant over-the-counter medications, prescribed and nonprescribed drugs, and illicit substances in pain management patients. The exact process of preparing and publishing the LMPG is shown in Table 1.

Briefly, a multidisciplinary LMPG committee was established to include clinical laboratory professionals, clinicians practicing in pain management, and other relevant stakeholders, healthcare professionals, and clinical experts. The experts on the committee are listed in the guideline and represented the AACC Academy (L.J. Langman, P.J. Jannetto); Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute, which is jointly preparing an expert opinion guideline on laboratory testing for pain management (C.A. Hammett-Stabler, L.J. Langman, G.A. McMillin); College of American Pathologists (S.E. Melanson); Evidence-Based Laboratory Medicine Committee (W.A. Clark); clinical laboratories performing pain management testing (L.J. Langman, P.J. Jannetto, C.A. Hammett-Stabler, G.A. McMillin, S.E. Melanson); AACC (C.A. Kassed); American Academy of Pain Medicine (T.J. Lamer, R.J. Hamill-Ruth, N. Bratanow); active pain management clinicians (T.J. Lamer, R.J. Hamill-Ruth, …