Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

HHS Logo Eagle IconU.S. Department of Health and Human Services

NIDA’s AMNET: An Addiction Medicine Network to Address the United States Opioid Crisis

Establish a New Practice-Based Research Network and Electronic Patient Registry Named Addition Medicine Network (AMNet)
Agency
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Start Date
  • 4/15/2019
Functionality
  • Collection of Participant-Provided Information
  • Linking of Clinical and Other Data for Research
  • Use of Clinical Data for Research

 

STATUS: Active Project

BACKGROUND

Only about one-quarter of the over 2 million Americans with opioid use disorder (OUD) receive treatment. The three FDA-approved medications for treatment of OUD – buprenorphine, methadone, and extended-release naltrexone – are provided in many office-based and community medical practices throughout the US. Office-based practices, which provide buprenorphine and naltrexone, play a key role in the treatment response to the epidemic because they have the capacity to treat many more patients than can be accommodated in the limited number of Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs), including rural and other underserved communities. However, little is known about outcomes for the patients treated with buprenorphine and naltrexone in office-based practices. These practices typically do not collect standardized data on patients’ characteristics, treatments, and outcomes, and have not been harnessed to conduct patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR). By connecting these settings to a practice-based research network, this project will enhance addiction-related data collection and capacity to conduct PCOR focused on treatment of OUD.

PROJECT PURPOSE & GOALS

This project will establish a new practice-based research network and an electronic patient registry named the Addiction Medicine Network (AMNet). AMNet will be designed to collect data for clinical and health services research related to addiction. The AMNet registry will serve as a platform for research on OUD and its treatments. The foundation for AMNet will be the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) clinical data registry (PsychPRO) and the over 40,000 members of the APA and the American Society of Addiction Medicine.

AMNet’s addiction medicine practitioners will collect standardized treatment and outcomes data including clinical and patient reported data relevant to the opioid epidemic from routine clinical practice (including in understudied populations). Participation in AMNet will improve clinical decision-making among addiction treatment providers and support research by AMNet participants and extramural scientists. With a focus on practice-based research, AMNet will develop the foundations of a research network for community-based clinical trials (e.g., comparative effectiveness of extended-release formulations of OUD medications). AMNet will provide real-time data on patient characteristics, care delivery, and recovery service utilization that can be used to improve patient outcomes through performance improvement efforts.

The specific objectives of this project are:

  • Establish AMNet – an addiction medicine practice-based research network.

  • Adapt PsychPRO to support data collected for AMNet.

  • Perform feasibility and validity testing of AMNet measures and OUD common data elements.

  • Expand addiction medicine research capacity and outreach through AMNet participant training and related dissemination activities.

  • Develop business requirements for linking AMNet to other databases and registries. The first data linkage project will link AMNet data for provider providers participating in CMS’ Merit-Based Incentive Program.