The Illusion of Choice—Buprenorphine Without Implementation—Reply

In Reply We thank Jones et al for their Letter and share their interest in overcoming buprenorphine implementation barriers. We agree with many of their suggestions to address these barriers. In the Veterans’ Pain Care Organizational Improvement Comparative Effectiveness (VOICE) clinical trial, a pragmatic study relying on volunteer clinicians, we deployed several implementation strategies, including identifying local buprenorphine champions, providing VOICE clinicians intensive buprenorphine prescribing training, monitoring adherence to the optional buprenorphine protocol, and conducting additional buprenorphine-focused trainings with sites experiencing challenges in implementing the protocol. Additionally, we educated patient participants on the potential benefits of buprenorphine for pain that was codesigned by persons with lived experience. As is common in research in daily clinical practice settings, the success of these strategies varied across sites.

from JAMA Internal Medicine Online First https://ift.tt/lsenKa8