Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action

Problem: Rates of adoption of evidenced-based practices, including the use of medications, to treat opioid dependence are low and severely limit secondary prevention efforts to curtail the prescription drug epidemic.

Purpose: The goal of this article was to describe how involvement in a research clinical trials network (CTN) facilitated the adoption of medications to treat opioid dependence at two community-based treatment programs (CTPs) affiliated with the Ohio Valley Node (OVN) of the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) CTN.

Key Points: Participation in a CTN may facilitate adoption by providing the infrastructure for trialability and observability, but the most critical function may be the knowledge translation that occurs through the individual-level professional relationships that develop.

Conclusion: Community-based treatment providers’ involvement in research networks may increase the rate of evidence-based practice (EBP) adoption and improve outcomes for patients with opioid dependence.