A new HealthPartners Institute study published in JAMA Internal Medicine shows that the use of a clinical decision support system (CDSS) in primary care clinics was associated with improved access to treatment for individuals whose opioid use causes significant impairment or distress. This condition known as opioid use disorder, affects 2.1 million people in the United States.

Researchers conducted the study from April 2021 to December 2023 in primary care clinics in three health systems across four U.S. states. They evaluated the ability of an electronic health record (EHR)-integrated CDSS to improve opioid use disorder diagnosis and treatment.

The opioid use disorder CDSS used a web service linked to the EHR to gather and analyze data. It then showed personalized treatment suggestions to primary care clinicians and their patients in the EHR and in handouts. This was the first large-scale clinical trial of a CDSS to promote opioid use disorder diagnosis and treatment in primary care.

Researchers found no difference in opioid use disorder diagnoses but found that the use of a CDSS increased the amount of naloxone orders, a medicine designed to reverse an opioid overdose. The CDSS also increased orders for medications for opioid use disorder and treatment referrals.

“With few primary care clinicians in the U.S. trained in addiction medicine and many reluctant to treat this condition because of a lack of institutional support and knowledge, these findings demonstrate that an opioid use disorder CDSS can increase evidence-based opioid use disorder treatment and increase accessibility for primary care patients,” said Dr. Rebecca Rossom, senior research investigator at HealthPartners Institute.

Closing the gap between research and care

Under the guidance of Institute researchers, several of the organization’s primary care clinics were part of the groundbreaking effort. The initiative reflects HealthPartners’ integrated approach — combining care delivery, health plan coverage and research — to bring data-driven solutions directly into primary care. This is a unique model among health care systems nationally.

Building on these positive findings, HealthPartners will expand the opioid use disorder CDSS to all of its primary care clinics. “HealthPartners is leading the way in bringing clinical decision support tools into primary care,” said Dr. Michael Stiffman, chair of HealthPartners family medicine. “By embedding innovations like this into everyday practice, we’re not only improving care for patients with opioid use disorder—we’re also translating the advances from our Institute directly into the work we do to improve outcomes for all our patients.”