TrestleTree, LLC, a Harvard Pilgrim company, has signed an exclusive agreement for the rights to an Opioid Risk Prediction Tool, which aims to pre-identify individuals susceptible to opioid abuse and addiction before the first opioid prescription is written.
Through this agreement, TrestleTree has obtained the technology and intellectual property rights to the tool, which was developed by Researcher Bradley Martin, Pharm.D., Ph.D., professor in the Division of Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Pharmacy’s Department of Pharmacy Practice.
By utilizing an algorithm that assesses more than 320 risk variables, the Opioid Risk Prediction Tool evaluates populations of individuals and assigns a risk level score for each individual that indicates the probability for opioid abuse or opioid overdose. In preliminary testing, the tool had a predictive measure of concordance of just over .90.
“This tool, in combination with TrestleTree’s unique approach to behavior change, will result in a model that can be used to stop opioid abuse and addiction before it starts,” said TrestleTree’s CEO Ted Borgstadt. “In the future, we believe that the TrestleTree model of predict and prevent will truly complement existing opioid education and treatment efforts, while representing a significant breakthrough in our fight against the opioid epidemic.”
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In acquiring the Opioid Risk Prediction Tool, TrestleTree also has developed a preventive approach to combating opioid abuse and addiction, specifically by combining the tool’s predictive modeling capability with the company’s unique and proven behavior change model. By leveraging the tool’s ability to pre-identify individuals at risk of opioid abuse and addiction, TrestleTree will work with individuals to support physician directives, to teach them about opioids as well as the risk for opioid misuse, and to guide them on how to use additional pain management strategies.
“Many states have legislated restrictions on initial opioid prescriptions to a five to seven-day supply, and while this positively decreases the volume of opioids in the market, the risk of abuse and addiction for an individual is still significant,” said Dr. Martin. “One of our recent studies published in MMWR (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) indicated that the likelihood of long term opioid use drastically increases at just five to seven days of opioid use. The ability to pre-identify opioid risk at the individual level and then apply the TrestleTree behavior change model is a strong step toward a tangible solution.”
TrestleTree is currently working with a small group of clients on integrating and testing the combined use of the Opioid Risk Prediction Tool with TrestleTree’s unique and proven behavioral coaching techniques. This includes conducting early opioid coaching with current partner health plans in advance of employing the tool, specifically for patients who have been pre-authorized for surgery. Over the coming months, TrestleTree will integrate the tool’s availability into the company’s coaching services to combat opioid abuse and addiction.
“Marrying our experience and core competency with the risk prediction tool gives us the future potential to disrupt opioid abuse before patients fall into the unintentional slippery slope of abuse and addiction that destroys lives and levies enormous human and financial costs,” said Borgstadt. “For more than 15 years, TrestleTree has created authentic relationships and employed innovative solutions to change the behaviors and health patterns of patients. With the Opioid Risk Prediction Tool, we are looking to apply that same approach to preventing the onset of opioid abuse and addiction with the patient before it starts.”
Date: August 27, 2018
Source: BioSpace
