BC learns lessons from opioid prescribing portraits, new primary care study says.
What is the study about?
This study was part of a rigorous clinical trial called REDONNA. The study had two parts:
1) a clinical trial that involved all eligible family doctors (~4,300) in British Columbia, (BC) who received a personalized opioid prescribing letter, called a Portrait, and
2) educational webinars about opioid prescribing – open to BC’s primary care health professionals.
More than 400 people attended these webinars. We also interviewed 19 family doctors, 13 nurse practitioners and other health professionals.
What did the study find?
Interviewees found it difficult to talk about first-time opioid analgesics without talking about continuous users, especially those who had opioid use disorders.
Many factors played a role in the decision-making for opioid prescribing.
It was influenced not only by the intended educational messages, but also by the past experiences with people who had opioid use disorders (PWOUD).
Professionals wanted more funding for non-pharmacological alternatives for patients and more in-depth personalized prescribing data.
Why is the study important?
REDONNA found that the Portrait had no impact on family doctors’ rates of first-time opioid analgesic prescriptions.
From the adjacent webinars and interviews, we learned a lot about how the potential misintreptation of intended Portrait messages re: “opioid-sparing” prescriptions.
Professionals interviewed in this study emphasized the importance of spending time with patients, supportive working environments, and appreciation for tailoring the prescribing Portraits and accessing expertise.
Future efforts to reduce opioid use disorders in primary care should move beyond opioid sparing.
If you enjoyed reading this post, you may also like reading more about opioid research. Or, visit the REDONNA study Dr Rita McCracken’s home page here.
Cited study: Narayan, S., Klimas, J., Di Marco, D., Strydom, N., Maclure, M., McCracken, R. (2024) Beyond Opioid Sparing: A qualitative study with nurse practitioners and family physicians in British Columbia. Canad J Addict. 15(4): 23-31.
Link to cited study: https://journals.lww.com/cja/abstract/2024/12000/beyond_opioid_sparing__a_qualitative_study_with.4.aspx
Trial registration: The study was registered prospectively on 30th March 2020 at the ISRCTN Register (https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN34246811).
Further information on the data sets used for this project is available at: https://my.popdata.bc.ca/project_listings/21-090/collection_approval_dates. All inferences, opinions, and conclusions drawn in this material are those of the author(s), and do not reflect the opinions or policies of the Data Steward(s).