SCOSI-M: Preventing Prescription Drug Problems

Preventing Prescription Drug Problems: A Pilot Military Opioid Safety Initiative

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 Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Prescription Drug Problems
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Educational Intervention

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 93
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Massachusetts
    • Waltham, Massachusetts, United States, 02454
      • Brandeis University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 85 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

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.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Other: PDMP Data

Other: Educational Intervention; 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).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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).	Up to 12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Brandeis University
• Collaborators: Medical University of South Carolina; University of South Carolina; William Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Center; Moncrief Army Community Hospital

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Larson MJ, Browne C, Nikitin RV, Wooten NR, Ball S, Adams RS, Barth K. Physicians report adopting safer opioid prescribing behaviors after academic detailing intervention. Subst Abus. 2018;39(2):218-224. doi: 10.1080/08897077.2018.1449175. Epub 2018 May 4.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: July 1, 2014
• Primary Completion (Actual): May 1, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): May 1, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 10, 2014
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 5, 2014
• First Posted (Estimate): August 7, 2014

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 9, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 8, 2020
• Last Verified: July 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 14047