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

Fast Track SBIR Study Online PCP Training in Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral, and Treatment

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT01326936

Enrollment

120

Registered

2011-03-31

Start date

2011-08-31

Completion date

2012-05-31

Last updated

2012-07-25

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Medical Education

Keywords

Online education, Medical education, Substance abuse training, Drug abuse training

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.

Interventions

BEHAVIORALOnline education

A brief (2-hour) interactive online training program in substance abuse (SU) management using virtual patient (VP) technology. Each learner will take one of two similar online programs involving five VPs that represent the range of SU management issues that commonly arise in clinical practice.

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Masking

NONE

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

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

Exclusion criteria

* Advanced medical training in substance abuse management

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
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

Countries

United States

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026