Competencies Needed for Behavioral Health Professionals to Integrate Digital Health Technologies into Clinical Care: a Rapid Review.

This rapid review examines literature on training and competencies for behavioral health professionals to integrate digital health technologies into clinical practice. While the evidence for digital health is growing, research evidence supports its use in behavioral healthcare. Despite this, behavioral health professionals have been slow to integrate technologies into care for various reasons.

Treatment changes following aberrant urine drug test results for patients prescribed chronic opioid therapy.

Background/objective: Urine drug testing (UDT) may be used to help screen for prescription opioid misuse. There are little data available describing usual pain care practices for patients who have aberrant UDT results. The goal of this research was to evaluate the clinical care for patients prescribed chronic opioid therapy (COT) and have an aberrant UDT.

Care management practices for chronic pain in veterans prescribed high doses of opioid medications.

Background: There is growing interest in the primary care management of patients with chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) who are prescribed long-term opioid therapy.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the care management practices and medical utilization of patients prescribed high doses of opioids relative to patients prescribed traditional doses of opioids.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of veterans who had CNCP in 2008 and reviewed medical care for the prior 2 years.

Chronic pain treatment and health service utilization of veterans with hepatitis C virus infection.

Objectives: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is estimated to affect 2% of the general U.S. population and chronic pain is a common comorbidity among persons with HCV.