Primary Care Clinicians' Attitudes on Digital Care Collaborative Management for Substance Use Disorders.

Area of Science:

• Addiction Medicine
• Primary Care
• Digital Health

Background:

• Substance use disorders (SUD) cause significant morbidity and mortality in the U.S., with inadequate treatment access.
• Primary Care Clinicians (PCCs) are vital for long-term SUD care but face provider-level barriers.
• Collaborative Care Management (CoCM) effectively supports PCCs in managing psychiatric conditions like depression.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess Primary Care Clinicians' attitudes toward a proposed addiction-focused modified CoCM model.
• To evaluate PCCs' likelihood of prescribing medications for alcohol and opioid use disorder with this digital CoCM support.
• To identify factors influencing PCCs' comfort in addressing SUD.

Main Methods:

• An anonymized electronic survey was distributed to 489 PCCs within an institution.
• Eighty-five PCCs completed the survey, yielding a 17.4% response rate.
• Survey assessed attitudes toward a digital CoCM model leveraging telemedicine and an electronic platform (Senyo).

Main Results:

• 94% of respondents agreed that digital CoCM for SUD would be helpful in their practice.
• 85% agreed such a model would increase their confidence and likelihood to prescribe anti-craving medications.
• PCCs' comfort with SUD care was not associated with years in practice, clinician type, or perceived resource availability.

Conclusions:

• PCCs show positive attitudes toward integrating digital CoCM for SUD treatment.
• The proposed model has the potential to enhance PCCs' capacity to prescribe SUD medications.
• Further evaluation of practice changes and patient outcomes post-implementation is warranted.