Using a Virtual Dosing Solution to Safely Increase Access to Take-Home Methadone

For many patients in opioid treatment programs (OTPs), daily clinic visits are a customary, but inconvenient reality of life.

Daily visits ensure that patients take their methadone under the supervision of their care teams, eliminating concerns about diversion and patient safety. But they also create a heavy workload for providers, and the significant time commitment makes it difficult for patients to focus on achieving their other life goals.

A new study published in the Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment* demonstrates that Sonara Health’s virtual dosing solution can make dosing easier for patients by supporting fewer clinic visits, while also addressing safety concerns commonly associated with take-home methadone.

Unlock the Power of the Virtual Dosing Window

Sonara Health’s remote dosing solution is a powerful tool for building trust between OTP patients and their care teams, without the need for daily, in-person visits.

The web-based application allows patients to document their daily take-home doses by scanning a tamper-aware QR code on their methadone bottle and then recording a video of themselves dosing, which is reviewed by the patient’s care team.

A Simple Solution for Take-Home Methadone Dosing

Sonara Health’s  new, peer reviewed research study measured the usability and feasibility of a remote observation app to support take-home methadone, with mixed methods including qualitative interviews and a two-week market test with 96 patients across four OTPs.

Completed with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the study exemplifies how a remote dosing application can address many of the challenges patients and providers face, bridging the gap between in-person, observed dosing and take-home methadone dosing, which was historically unsupervised.

Participating patients described Sonara’s app as “easy to use,” and 92% agreed or strongly agreed that they would like to use the app frequently. Satisfaction ratings showed that web-app dosing interferes less with daily life than clinic dosing, and some patients even preferred Sonara’s web-app dosing to unsupervised take-home dosing.

“I have very deep addiction problems that go all the way back to childhood,” one patient explained. “The thing I like about the app is along with the methadone, you are accountable. That helps you stay on track because you know everybody is watching, and you don't want to screw up. That puts a little bit more positive peer pressure on you and makes you feel that you are doing the right thing.”

A Competitive Advantage for Opioid Treatment Programs

OTP directors also recognized that Sonara’s app could improve patient retention rates and set their programs apart from other clinics

“I think [the take-home app] is going to be an industry standard. I am excited about [being] one step ahead of everybody,” one manager said. “[Video take-homes] will be an expectation, and we will have a marketing advantage.”

When patients are empowered to achieve their treatment goals more easily, everyone benefits.  

 “We built Sonara to help patients achieve their recovery goals and support OTP care teams in their efforts to improve outcomes and increase patient retention,” said Sonara Founder and CEO Michael Giles, MD. “It’s exciting to see how this study has validated the need for Sonara’s solution, as well as the positive impact it can have on the patients who use it.”  

Partner with Sonara to Make Life-Saving Methadone Treatment Accessible

We believe that fewer lives would be lost to opioid dependency if barriers to treatment could be eliminated. Our virtual dosing solution is a safe and effective tool for helping patients overcome those barriers, without sacrificing safety, trust, or accountability. 

If you’re interested in partnering with Sonara to bring our virtual dosing solution to your organization, contact us here to learn more about how we can work together! 

*“Usability and feasibility of a take-home methadone web-application for opioid treatment program patients: A Small Business Innovation Research mixed methods study” was written by Michael Giles, Lucy Reynales, Avinash Jayaraman, Omer Kaplan, Kshitij Verma, Katharina Wiest, Samuel Denney, Cora Hart, Steffani R. Bailey, Dongseok Choi, Kim A. Hoffman, Mark P. McGovern, and Dennis McCarty.