Completed Projects

ETSU DIVERSITY-PROMOTING INSTITUTIONS
DRUG ABUSE RESEARCH PROGRAM (DIDARP)

INTER-PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR PRESCRIPTION DRUG ABUSE PREVENTION IN APPALACHIA

The ETSU Prescription Drug Abuse/ Misuse Working Group is an interdisciplinary team comprised of ETSU faculty from all five of the Colleges within the Academic Health Sciences Center and other departments and colleges across campus, medical doctors, nurses, pain specialists, anti-drug coalitions leaders, ETSU students and research assistants, treatment professionals, leaders from the non-profit sector, and many others.

The PDAM Working Group recognizes that the Prescription Drug Epidemic, like any public health challenge, is multi-faceted and requires a a comprehensive analysis and action plan.

The PDA/M Working Group has developed a long-range vision for a Center for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention at ETSU. In 2012 the Working Group met regularly to develop research, training, service and development projects that would grow into such a Center. Their work resulted in a large-scale NIDA proposal that was funded on the first attempt in 2013. It is the ETSU Diversity-promoting Institutions Drug Abuse Research Program (DIDARP): Inter-professional Communication for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention in Appalachia (R. Pack, PI). This funding supports training and mentorship of students and faculty while executing the three research projects listed below:

• Project 1: Health Care Provider Communication and Prescription Drug Abuse. (N. Hagemeier, PI).
• Project 2: Patient-Provider Communication to Prevent Prescription Drug Abuse. (R. Pack, PI)
• Project 3: Analysis of Controlled Substance Donations via DEA-Sanctioned Drug Take Back Events and Drug Donation Boxes in Central Appalachia. (J. Gray, PI)

The work is conducted within the Appalachian Research Network (AppNET), a Health Services and Resources Administration (HRSA)-funded, rural Appalachian Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN). AppNET currently has 17 clinic groups with approximately 51 physician providers and 32 mid-level providers participating in AppNET activities. AppNET research efforts currently involve working with member clinics on their medication reconciliation process to reduce adverse medication events, and developing an automated clinic data mapping system that will provide individual clinics with clinical quality improvement data. AppNET infrastructure is being expanded to include community pharmacies and local health departments in the region. This expansion is necessary to facilitate collaborative project activities that would not be possible without this infrastructure. Also, this expansion maximizes the potential of past and future investments in the regional PBRN infrastructure. To the best of our knowledge, this infrastructure unique in the national landscape of PBRNs.

For more information, contact Angela Hagaman at hagaman@etsu.edu. 

 

Project: Aligning the Recovery Ecosystem in the Appalachian Highlands
Project Period: August 2021 – August 2024
Care Foundation of America, Inc.

Overview:  The ETSU Addiction Science Center (ASC) received funding from the Care Foundation of America on July 23, 2021 and began working towards the stated project goals in August of 2021. Project goals stemmed from the need to prioritize regional gaps within the recovery ecosystem in order to responsibly allocate Sullivan Baby Doe and Tennessee Opioid Abatement dollars. This prioritization process would not have been possible without the newly formed Regional Recovery Ecosystem Advisory Council, led by ETSU ASC and the President and CEO of Frontier Health, Kristie Hammonds. This council is comprised of experts that engage with the addiction and recovery field and have meaningful insight into the experiences within the Northeast Tennessee region.  

The Regional Recovery Ecosystem Advisory Council (RREAC) has compiled priorities to strengthen Northeast Tennessee’s recovery ecosystem. The four main categories include Prevention and Education, Treatment and Recovery, Connection to Care, and Housing and Transportation. The RREAC will continue to check in on the status of priority and objective progression at least annually and will revisit these recommendations with future modifications. 

REPORT

RREAC 2023 Recommendations in NE TN

 

AUGUST 2023 A Community Needs Assessment of Drug Use and Overdose Prevention, Treatment, Recovery, and Harm Reduction Services in Tennessee.  

In 2022, the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) Overdose Response Coordination Office (ORCO) contracted East Tennessee State University (ETSU) and faculty affiliated with the ETSU Addiction Science Center (ASC) to inform CDC funded Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) grant activities. Through this contracted scope of work, ETSU ASC study team assessed the needs and experiences of people with self-reported past 30-day substance use and those who self-identified as being in recovery through a series of confidential interviews and focus groups conducted in the designated High Impact Areas (HIAs) across the state of Tennessee. 

The co-principal investigators of this project, Dr. Bill Brooks, and Dr. Angela Hagaman, provided oversight for the contracted scope of work, which included qualitative data collection from people with lived and living experience of substance use disorder (SUD), including people in recovery or people who were currently using substances. 

The ETSU study team co-created the qualitative interview guides used for data collection efforts in partnership with TDH ORCO staff to understand the ways in which harm reduction, treatment, and post-treatment recovery services in the 5 TN high impact areas (HIAs) are supporting individuals experiencing SUD, seeking SUD treatment for themselves or a loved one, and those interested in long-term recovery support services. The TN HIAs are communities shown by the data to be most impacted by the overdose epidemic in the state. 

REPORT

JUNE 2019 Leveraging the Workplace for Substance Abuse Prevention: Stakeholder Perspectives of Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing Comprehensive Programs

The goal of the project is to identify gaps in comprehensive drug-free workplace programs in worksites in Tennessee, with a focus on barriers and facilitators to implementing these programs. The project will integrate qualitative (i.e., interviews) and quantitative (i.e., survey) methods, apply theory, and target the perspectives of worksite stakeholders. The resulting preliminary data will be critical in pursuing external funding to test strategies to increase the implementation of comprehensive drug-free workplace programs.

APRIL 2019 Fentanyl-Related Overdose Risk Among Central Appalachian Heroin Using Populations: A Qualitative Study

The ETSU Center for Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment proposes a qualitative study that utilizes behavioral theory and community-based methods to build a model of fentanyl-related overdose determinants, which will be used in subsequent studies to develop a culturally relevant, intervention to reduce fentanyl-related overdose rates in the region. 

The aims of this study are: 

Aim #1: Use of group model building to qualitatively examine factors influencing fentanyl-related overdose risk in Central Appalachian heroin user communities.

Aim #2: Validation and refinement of model through one-on-one interviews with recovering heroin users in Central Appalachia.

We anticipate the results of this study will be integral to prevention, treatment, and harm reduction efforts to reduce the rising burden of fentanyl-related mortality in the region. 

APRIL 2017 Community Pharmacist Engagement in HCV/HIV Prevention funded by the ETSU Research Development Committee (RDC)

The aims of this project are to:

1) qualitatively evaluate community pharmacists’ non-prescription syringe dispensing knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors by conducting 15 key informant interviews with licensed, community pharmacists across three states; and

2) quantitatively evaluate Northeast Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and Western North Carolina community pharmacists’ non-prescription syringe dispensing knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behavior via a telephone survey of 300 randomly selected community pharmacists. 

This research will provide preliminary data for NIH proposals that explore syringe dispensing feasibility and intervention studies in non-metro areas. Engagement of community pharmacists in HIV/HCV prevention could have significant public health impact in our region and beyond.

JANUARY 2016 TBR grant to conduct research related to prescription stimulant misuse on college campuses to Dr. Rajkumar Sevak, inaugural fellows at the Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy at East Tennessee State University.

The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of non-medical use of prescription stimulants on campuses as well as to identify risk factors for the misuse and specific areas where interventions for reducing the misuse can be developed. The project will include an electronic survey of students at approximately a dozen community colleges in Tennessee. Please click here for more information.

APRIL 2014 Improving Tennessee Health Care Providers' Understanding of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome

The purpose of this study is to inform the State's understanding of Tennessee prescriber and dispenser knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors specific to prescription opioid use in pregnancy and NAS prevention by conducting methodologically rigorous, theoretically based survey of TN prescribers and dispensers in NE TN.