Integrating MOUD in Nonmedical Community Settings (Better Together)

Summary

A multisite effectiveness-implementation study will be conducted in four sites to evaluate interventions to improve engagement and retention in MOUD with buprenorphine treatment persons with Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) in urban neighborhoods with high overdose rates. The investigators hypothesize that treatment with the Better Together Integrated Collaborative Community MOUD care model (BT-MOUD) will result in better retention in treatment than standard-of-care MOUD with buprenorphine provided in the hub buprenorphine clinic only (HC-MOUD Only) through 24 weeks following randomization. BT-MOUD provides MOUD with buprenorphine in nonmedical community-based settings via telemedicine from a hub buprenorphine clinic combined with Recovery Guiding, a manual guided coaching developed for this approach, provided onsite in the community organization.

Conditions

• Opioid Use Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

HC-MOUD Only

MOUD with buprenorphine provided in a hub buprenorphine clinic

BEHAVIORAL

BT-MOUD with Buprenorphine

MOUD with buprenorphine provided by a hub buprenorphine provider either in the hub clinic or via telemedicine at a community hub; Recovery Guiding provided to participants

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Illinois at Chicago

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Miami

  collaborator OTHER

• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

  collaborator NIH

• The Emmes Company, LLC

  collaborator INDUSTRY

• University of Maryland

  collaborator OTHER

• Howard University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Richard S Schottenfeld, MD · Howard University

• Viviana Horigian, MD, MHA · University of Miami

• Niranjan Karnik, MD, PhD · University of Illinois Chicago

• Denise M. Scott, PhD · Howard University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

16 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-01-26

Primary Completion

2028-07-31

Completion

2028-07-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations