Cloutier RM, Cole ES, McDonough BL, Lomauro DA, Miller JP, Talbert AL, Bear TM, Bridges NC, Foulds AL, Taber R, Gordon AJ, Cochran GT, Kmiec J, Donohue JM, Kelley D, DiDomenico E, Adair D, Pringle JL. Strategies to recruit rural primary care providers to implement a medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) focused integrated care model. Implementation Research & Practice. 2023.

Access to providers and programs that provide medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) remains a systemic barrier for patients with opioid use disorder (OUD), particularly if they live in rural areas. The Rural Access to Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) in Pennsylvania Project (Project RAMP) addressed this problem with a multisystem partnership that recruited, trained, and supported rural primary care providers to provide MOUD and implement an integrated care model (ICM) for patients with OUD. This article summarizes the recruitment strategies, including feasibility concerns for further expansion into other regions.

Bridges NC, Taber R, Foulds AL, Bear TM, Cloutier RM, McDonough BL, Gordon AJ, Cochran GT, Donohue JM, Adair D, DiDomenico E, Pringle JL, Gellad WF, Kelley D, Cole ES. Medications for opioid use disorder in rural primary care practices: Patient and provider experiences. Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment. 2023.

Thirty-five semi-structured interviews with MOUD patients and MOUD providers participating in RAMP revealed that patients and providers agreed on many barriers (e.g., lack of providers, lack of transportation, insufficient rapport and trust in patient-provider relationship, and cost, etc.); however, their interpretation of the barrier, or indicated solution, diverged in meaningful ways. Patients described their experiences in broad terms pointing to the social determinants of health, as they highlighted their lives outside of the therapeutic encounter in the clinic. Providers focused on their professional roles, responsibilities, and operations within the primary care setting.

Cloutier RM, Aldridge A, Hoffman G, Boyd KL, Wang EH, Foster K, Snyder K, Dowd W, Pringle JL. Pennsylvania's community coordination strategy to reduce opioid overdose deaths. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. 2023.

The Pennsylvania Opioid Overdose Reduction Technical Assistance Center (ORTAC) was established to reduce opioid-related overdose deaths through community coordination and technical support. This study reports that ORTAC engagement between 2016-2019 was associated with a significant decrease in overdose death rates, avoiding an estimated 1,818 deaths in the first two years of implementation across 29 counties.

Click here for a more complete bibliography of Dr. Cloutier's work.