Perceived Effect of Research on Clinical Care for Women With Opioid Use Disorder

Objective: To describe the perceived effects of clinical research and program evaluation on perceptions of clinical care among women with opioid use disorder (OUD) and their health care providers. Design: Qualitative descriptive. Setting: Four specialty clinics in academic medical centers that provide care for pregnant women with OUD. Participants: Women with OUD during pregnancy or the postpartum period (“women participants”; n = 20) and health care providers (“provider participants”; n = 37). All staff in the clinics were invited to participate in focus groups. Methods: We conduced focus groups and interviews with the women and provider participants to understand the perceived effects of clinical research and program evaluation on their perceptions of clinical care among women with OUD. We audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed sessions using qualitative content analysis. Results: Overall, nine themes emerged from the data. Two themes emerged in common among data from the providers and women data: Demands on Women's Time and Challenging Research Topics. Seven additional themes emerged only from the provider data: Potential to Improve Clinical Practice, Funding Opportunities to Provide Services, Burden to Clinical Flow, Overwhelming Number of Studies, Pressure to Engage in Research, Clinic Level Controls to Reduce Research Burden and Potential for Coercion, and Meaningful Input on the Research Process. Conclusion: Providers and women shared similar opinions about the opportunities and challenges of research focused on women with OUD. Providers suggested ways to improve the integration of research activities into clinical settings.