SCOSI-M: Preventing Prescription Drug Problems

Brandeis University93 enrolled

Overview

Brandeis University and University of South Carolina (USC) have joined together to develop the South Carolina Opioid Safety Initiative - Military (SCOSI-M), to develop an academic detailing (medical education) intervention for physicians and evaluate its effectiveness in a pilot study. The goal of the intervention is to increase the use of safe prescribing and prescription monitoring practices among primary care physicians. The research team will design and pilot an educational intervention for physicians who treat military personnel, veterans, and their families with prescription opioids. The overall aim of SCOSI-M is to prevent the onset or progression of prescription drug problems among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, military members, and their families who are at high risk for developing problems if their treatment involves long-term use of an opioid.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Prescription Drug Problems

Interventions

The design is primarily a pre-post, non-equivalent comparison group test of program effectiveness. If final sample size permits, we will examine program effects for each practice environment separately. For measures that require interview data there will be no comparison group data. We will construct matched comparison groups of physicians for each environment for which only secondary data analysis will be conducted. The matched comparison group will be constructed using prescription data from the DoD's pharmacy data transaction system (MACH and DORN VAMC) and from SCRIPTS (community-based physicians and VA prescribers).

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsMax age: 85 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: 1. a physician within one of the 3 practice environments; 2. typically prescribes Schedule II opioids to 10 or more non-cancer pain patients each month; 3. if community office-based, a substantial number of patients must have TRICARE (e.g., 20%); and d) willing to provide written consent for data collection and release of own SCRIPTS data. Exclusion Criteria: 1. non-physician providers who report data to the SCRIPTS (dentist, veterinarians, nurses), 2. surgeons, pediatricians, or physicians predominately treating pain in cancer or surgical patients, and, 3. not eligible to register as authorized SCRIPTS user.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Use of SCRIPTS

Primary outcomes, or effectiveness, will be measured first by the use of SCRIPTS when prescribing opioids (e.g., % of new patients the physician queried; % of patients with long-term use the physician queried).

Time frame: Up to 12 months