Reducing Concurrent Opioid-Benzodiazepine Prescriptions

Summary

The purpose of this effort is to use informative e-mails to improve the process of prescribing of opioids and benzodiazepines within the National Capital Region/Military Health System (NCR/MHS), with the aim of decreasing concurrent opioid and benzodiazepine prescribing.

Conditions

• Adverse Drug Effect of Opioids
• Adverse Drug Effect of Benzodiazepines

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

E-mail Alert

Encrypted email to the following providers: the patient's opioid prescriber(s), benzodiazepine prescriber(s), and/or primary care manager. If there is more than one provider, they are copied together on the same message. The email identifies the concurrent prescriptions, details the patient's prescription history, includes relevant VA/DoD guidelines, states the risk of concurrent prescribing to patient, and provides action steps and relevant resources. When multiple providers are involved, the message encourages the providers to coordinate with each other and provides provider contact information to facilitate this communication.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• United States Department of Defense

  collaborator FED

• General Services Administration (GSA)

  collaborator FED

• Walter Reed National Military Medical Center

  lead FED

Principal Investigators

• Robert E Brutcher, PharmD,PhD · Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

• Alan Sim, PhD · Defense Health Agency

• Elana Safran, MPP · General Services Administration (GSA)

• Adam Sacarny, PhD · General Services Administration and Columbia University

• Mary Steffel, PhD · General Services Administration and Northeastern University

• Christopher J Spevak, MD, MPH, JD · Walter Reed National Medical Medical Center

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-06-06

Primary Completion

2021-07-29

Completion

2022-06-01

Countries

• United States

Study Locations