# Using telehealth to expand treatment access for Veterans with opioid use disorder

> **NIH VA IK2** · VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION · 2021 · —

## Abstract

Impacts: The proposed research addresses a critical VHA and HSR&D priority to improve access to opioid
use disorder (OUD) treatment by developing and pilot testing a novel telehealth treatment delivery intervention.
Background: With the national opioid epidemic, OUD prevalence in Veterans has increased and many
Veterans with OUD experience serious and preventable harms including overdose and suicide. Increasing
access to treatment, especially with the medication buprenorphine, can help prevent these harms. However,
only a third of Veterans with OUD receive evidence-based treatment. The biggest access barrier is lack of
trained buprenorphine providers on-site across VHA facilities, contributing to particularly low treatment for
Veterans receiving care in Community-Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs). Telehealth interventions have been
developed in the VA to allow specialists in VA Medical Centers to deliver treatment to Veterans in CBOCs, but
minimal research has been done on telehealth for substance use disorders. A few VA facilities, including the
VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System have begun to use telehealth to deliver OUD treatment, but research is
needed to inform a telehealth model that can be scalable across facilities, examine impact on treatment use,
and determine where telehealth should be targeted to maximize impact. The methods and sequence have
been designed to address these pressing questions in the following 3 aims:
Aim 1: Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with patients and clinicians in four facilities, including the
VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, that have begun to use telehealth delivery of OUD treatment to Veterans in
CBOCs, to understand components of their interventions, perceptions of treatment and barriers and facilitators
to use. Informed by these qualitative findings, a Delphi panel of OUD experts, including frontline providers, will
help refine a telehealth intervention that can be feasible across facilities and will be pilot tested in Aim 2.
Aim 2: In a pilot trial, CBOC Veterans with OUD will be randomized to the telehealth OUD intervention refined
in Aim 1 (n=20) or in-person OUD treatment as usual (n=20). The study will examine feasibility and
acceptability incorporating survey data and qualitative interviews with participants and study clinicians and
characterize treatment engagement, retention and substance-use outcomes over 3 month followup.
Aim 3: Using national VHA data of CBOC Veterans with OUD, analyses will examine factors associated with
patient and facility-level variation in OUD treatment to understand areas where treatment is need. Analyses will
also examine facility level variation in buprenorphine provider capacity and telehealth use. These findings will
identify key patient and facility-level factors associated with treatment need and indicate which patients and
CBOCs should be prioritized for telehealth.
Candidate: The PI's long-term goal is to build on her addiction clinical and research backgro...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10186552
- **Project number:** 5IK2HX002612-03
- **Recipient organization:** VETERANS HEALTH ADMINISTRATION
- **Principal Investigator:** Lewei Allison Lin
- **Activity code:** IK2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-01 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10186552

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10186552, Using telehealth to expand treatment access for Veterans with opioid use disorder (5IK2HX002612-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10186552. Licensed CC0.

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