Blog: Want to reduce opioid use? Nudge the doctors who prescribe them

Although the allegations against Pham paint a stark picture of extreme negligence and violation of the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm, most of us doctors have the best of intentions when prescribing medications, including narcotics. However, even when our motivations are pure, the reality is that we still vastly overprescribe opioids. In Los Angeles County, doctors in 2017 wrote 4,266,149 opioid prescriptions. That includes me.