# Localize Opioid Use Disorder (LOUD) response to increase medication access

> **NIH NIH R37** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2024 · $823,809

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) improve the health of individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD).
However, there are significant gaps in obtaining services at each step of the opioid treatment cascade.
Individual’s access to MOUD vary by community characteristics, most often characterized simply by physical
availability (e.g., drive time to treatment location), and are different based on an individual’s age, gender, and
race/ethnicity. Using geographic availability metrics alone fails to account for other barriers and facilitators of
MOUD access (e.g., insurance, stigma, access to vehicles) and thus leads to erred assessments of
community’s responsiveness to OUD treatment needs. The patient-centered access to healthcare framework
organizes individual and structural level factors impacting access into five stages including the opportunity to (i)
identify healthcare needs, and then (ii) seek, (iii) reach, (iv) obtain, and (v) use the appropriate health care
services. The overarching goal of our study is to improve receipt of opioid treatment cascade services via data-
driven tailoring and monitoring of services. The primary objective is to develop and validate a replicable and
scalable Small Area Multidimensional MOUD Access (SAMMA) suite of measures along with computing
dashboards to enable dissemination. The rationale for this proposal is that embedding a multidimensional,
patient-centered framework of MOUD access within a socio-ecological view of health should facilitate improved
understanding of community variation in the opioid treatment cascade and enable a more sophisticated
tailoring and monitoring of interventions. The primary objective will involve three specific aims: 1) create a suite
of SAMMA measures within 50 US states and the District of Columbia; 2) validate and refine the SAMMA
measures on the community level; and 3) validate and refine the SAMMA measures by exploring access within
small areas where individual level access diverges from the SAMMA measures. For Aim 1, we will engage with
governmental health agencies and key community partners to create the SAMMA measures using publicly-
available, community level data including the American Community Survey. For Aim 2, we will validate and
refine the SAMMA measures with community level Medicaid claims data, MOUD availability data, and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Social Vulnerability Index. For Aim 3, we will employ a mixed-
method convergent parallel approach using multi-location surveys of people who use drugs (PWUD) to
measure bivariate and multilevel model associations of individual level access and the SAMMA measures and
conduct semi-structured interviews among PWUD who’s individual level access diverged from the SAMMA
measures. Our innovative study will be the first to integrate multiple stages of healthcare access into a
community MOUD access measure by engaging key partners during development. It has potential for high
impact act...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 11049392
- **Project number:** 1R37DA060183-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Paul J Joudrey
- **Activity code:** R37 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $823,809
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-09-30 → 2028-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/11049392

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 11049392, Localize Opioid Use Disorder (LOUD) response to increase medication access (1R37DA060183-01A1). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-26 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/11049392. Licensed CC0.

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