RE: Increasing Capacity for Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder in Rural Primary Care Practices

  • Neil Korsen, Physician Scientist, Maine Medical Center Research Institute
16 February 2022

Thank you to Linda Zittleman and colleagues for this description of an excellent example of translational research and for your efforts to improve care for people with opioid use disorders. I am familiar with this project, having served on an advisory group for all grantees in this program and by working with some of the authors on community engagement.
This paper reminded me of some key principles of successful translation of research into practice - engaging the whole practice team, packaging the intervention in a way that facilitates adoption, and doing a community intervention in parallel to raise awareness and increase community acceptance of the intervention.
The authors also do a very good job of measuring the impact of their intervention at multiple levels. Combining practice level process measures with population level prescription data is interesting and suggests that the region achieved results beyond those in other parts of the state. It is impressive to see how much practice change was accomplished, given that there are always competing demands on clinician and practice time and attention.
Thanks to the authors for a well done study.

Competing Interests: I was an advisor to this project in my role on an expert panel working with AHRQ. I have also worked with some of the authors who have mentored me and other colleagues on community engaged research. I have no financial conflicts.
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