Harmful Use of Opioid Prevention Study (HOOPS)
A HEAL prevention study aimed at understanding the utility of current opioid prescribing principles and practices.
Principal Investigator: Brooke Molina, PhD
Funding Source: National Institute on Drug Abuse
This project was part of the NIH HEAL InitiativeSM (Helping to End Addiction Long-termSM Initiative) that has funded hundreds of projects designed to understand and tackle the national opioid epidemic. Our specific project was attempting to understand primary care and specialist practice factors that affect treatment of pain experienced by young adult patients. Our goals included understanding factors that influence diversion of prescribed opioids -- from the prescriber's perspective.
Approximately 100 physicians, advanced practice providers, and nurses participated in this study. Participants included those providing primary and specialty (e.g., dentistry, orthopedics) care.
The research study involved two activities. The first activity was a one-hour videoconference with the primary or specialty practice. This guided group discussion aided the research team in understanding provider factors pertinent to the reduction of young adult patient diversion of opioids. Topics included current prescribing practices, current prescribing guidelines, barriers to the implementation of such guidelines, attitudes and beliefs about opioid management and supports that are available for the implementation of prescribing guidelines. The second study activity included the completion of an electronic survey.
Our immediate goals, through group conversations and electronic survey, are to describe variability in opioid prescribing practices, brainstorm about modifiable practices and resources, understand challenges to implementing evidence-based practices and guidelines, and generate opportunities for optimizing safe practices and preventing diversion of opioids by young adult patients.