# Facilitating Alcohol Screening and Treatment (FAST), Colorado

> **NIH AHRQ R18** · UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER · 2020 · $900,564

## Abstract

Project Summary – FAST, Colorado
Alcohol use causes an estimated 88,000 deaths yearly and is the third leading cause of mortality in the U.S.
Unhealthy alcohol use, a spectrum from risky drinking to alcohol use disorder (AUD), impacts 27% of adults,
with high cost to the health care system. Evidence-based guidelines exist for identification and treatment of
unhealthy alcohol use, and evidence supports the effectiveness of medication-assisted therapy (MAT). Primary
care is recognized as an ideal context for the implementation of screening and treatment processes. Despite
the evidence, significant gaps exist in uptake into practice. Practice facilitation has emerged as a key method
for assisting practices in implementing organizational changes and improvements. However, in-person practice
facilitation is time-intensive and costly, and virtual facilitation has not been as effective as in-person. E-learning
modules can provide a structure for quality improvement in a clinical area. A pilot using e-learning combined
with virtual practice facilitation was very successful from the perspectives of both practice facilitators and
practices. We believe that virtual practice facilitation using e-learning modules to focus the content and process
has great potential as a less costly and equally effective method compared to in-person facilitation. In this
“Facilitating Alcohol Screening and Treatment (FAST) Colorado” proposal, we would perform a cluster
randomized trial to examine the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance (RE-AIM) and
relative value of two approaches to supporting primary care practices to implement PCOR findings to improve
their identification and treatment management of unhealthy alcohol use among adults, including screening,
brief intervention, medication assisted therapy, and referral to treatment. This trial would investigate the non-
inferiority from an effectiveness perspective and the superiority from a cost perspective of: a) a virtual practice
facilitation intervention, with a practice facilitator working with practices in virtual group sessions utilizing an
alcohol use disorder e-learning module to guide and focus the process and content, when compared to b) an
in-person practice facilitation intervention. We would identify key practice characteristics and other contextual
factors that impact the response of practices to the two practice interventions. We would compare the
adaptability, trialability, and scalability of the two interventions in order to plan dissemination of the findings to
key local, regional, and national stakeholders, including sharing ongoing lessons learned and resources with
other programs supporting practice transformation.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9994867
- **Project number:** 5R18HS027079-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER
- **Principal Investigator:** Walter Perry Dickinson
- **Activity code:** R18 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** AHRQ
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $900,564
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-09-30 → 2022-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9994867

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9994867, Facilitating Alcohol Screening and Treatment (FAST), Colorado (5R18HS027079-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9994867. Licensed CC0.

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