Online Primary Care Physician (PCP) Training in Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral, and Treatment

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Medical Education
• Interventions: Behavioral: Online education

• Registration Number: NCT01326936
• Lead Sponsor: Medical Directions, Inc

Brief Summary

This project seeks to develop a comprehensive, computer-based education program for primary care physicians that will improve their skills in structured substance abuse screening, brief interventions, and referral and treatment (SBIRT). The investigators will develop two online education programs based on virtual patient (VP) technology. One program will include five typical, interactive, problem-solving VPs and the second will include five identical VPs except that two VPs will have been "worked" by substance abuse experts and presented as case studies. The remaining three VPs will be "unworked" (typical VPs). The investigators hypothesize that both education programs will significantly improve educational outcomes, compared to no training, as measured by a validated survey tool. A secondary hypothesis is that physicians using the "worked" (guided learning) program will achieve similar educational results as those using the typical VP approach, but will require less training time.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study First Submitted: 2011-03-29
• Study First Submitted QC: 2011-03-30
• Study First Posted: 2011-03-31
• Study Start: 2011-08
• Primary Completion: 2012-04
• Study Completion: 2012-05
• Status Verified: 2012-07
• Last Update Submitted: 2012-07-23
• Last Update Posted: 2012-07-25

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 120

Inclusion Criteria

• Physician in primary care training program
• Faculty member in primary care training program

Exclusion Criteria

• Advanced medical training in substance abuse management

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Unworked VP	Online education	Online education using typical virtual patient (VP) approach. Five unworked VPs presented to subjects for study.
Guided Learning	Online education	Online education replaces two unworked VPs in Arm 1 with identical worked example VPs (case studies) for learners to study

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Scores on The Physicians' Competence in Substance Abuse Test (P-CSAT)	Following completion of education program and 2 months later	The Physicians' Competence in Substance Abuse Test (P-CSAT) was developed as part of this project. Information, including a complete description of the P-CSAT, has been submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Medical Directions, Inc.; 🇺🇸 Tucson, Arizona, United States