Telehealth Approaches to Improve Opioid Use Care in Pregnancy

Lorie M Harper1

  • 1Department of Women's Health, University of Texas at Austin, Dell Medical School, Austin, Texas.

Although pharmacotherapy is the mainstay of treatment for opioid use disorder, the US faces a shortage of qualified pharmacotherapy providers, even in high-need areas. Telemedicine is a promising method of increasing the availability of opioid use disorder treatments, but several barriers must first be addressed before implementation. This article presents a case study of using telemedicine to provide pharmacotherapy in pregnancy, examines the barriers to providing pharmacotherapy via telemedicine, and proposes solutions to overcome these barriers.

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