CTN-0071-Ot: Electronic Health Records Data Elements Research (EHR-DARE)

Li-Tzy Wu, ScD, RN
Lead Investigator
Duke Clinical Research Institute
litzy.wu@duke.edu

K. Micki Roseman, BS
Study Coordinator

Duke Clinical Research Institute
micki.roseman@duke.edu

The immediate purpose of this work is to identify electronic health record (EHR) data available today and in the near future at healthcare facilities participating in the NIDA Clinical Trials Network (CTN). The overarching goal is to address a critical barrier to progress in substance use disorder (SUD) research and support planning on the CTN for research infrastructure to leverage EHR data for research informing SUD screening, intervention, treatment, and referral efforts.

Primary Findings

Participants (n=26) were from facilities across the country (South 46.2%, West 23.1%, Midwest 19.2%, Northeast 11.5%), representing 26 different health systems/facilities at various settings: primary care (30.8%), ambulatory other/specialty (26.9%), mixed setting (11.5%), hospital outpatient (11.5%), emergency department (7.7%), inpatient (3.8%), and other (7.7%). Validated tools were rarely used for substance use screen and SUD assessment. Structured and unstructured EHR fields were commonly used to document SBIRT. The following tasks had high proportions of using unstructured EHR fields: substance use screen, treatment exploration, brief intervention, referral, and follow-up.

This study is the first of its kind to investigate the documentation of SBIRT in the EHR outside of unique settings (e.g., Veterans Health Administration). While results are descriptive, they emphasize the importance of developing EHR features to collect structured data for SBIRT to improve healthcare quality evaluation and SUD research.

Primary Outcomes Article: Wu L, et al. Clinical Workflow and Substance Use Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment Data in the Electronic Health Records: A National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network Study. eGEMS 2019;7(1):1-15 [get article]

    Node Involvement

    Lead Node(s):

  • Mid-Southern Node

  • All Participating Nodes:

  • Mid-Southern Node