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I work in the pharmaceutical sector managing a team of representatives who work in addiction medicine and whose goal is to help open access to treatment. Canada is in the middle of an opioid overdose crisis. My company makes Suboxone, a product for addiction and dependence to opioids, diagnosed as opioid use disorder (OUD). My representatives meet with health care professionals (HCP\u2019s) to raise awareness of OUD with a view to educate and help patients get the treatment they deserve. Currently, it is mostly addiction medicine physicians that treat OUD. Family physicians have the capacity to treat uncomplicated OUD or maintain patients in treatment if medication was initiated elsewhere. In many cases, family physicians are reluctant or refuse to accept patients for maintenance treatment. The problem is that acceptance for patients to get maintenance therapy in family practice, where they want it, is limited. I want to dig deeper with family physicians regarding the barriers to treat OUD so patients can get treatment with their family doctor.<\/p>\n
I propose an action study at two Family Health Teams (FHT\u2019s), one treating and one not treating OUD, and discuss barriers to treatment. I would conduct a quantitative arm looking at a successful program and find out when they started, how many patients have been treated, how many physicians referred to the treating physician or nurse and then do a qualitative review of what barriers had to be overcome for success. I would conduct a qualitative study of a FHT that is not treating OUD to get details of the barriers, challenges and hesitations. I feel that by getting to the specific barriers it will help focus efforts to open access to OUD treatment, thereby reducing the death rate.<\/p>\n
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