Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a major public health concern in the United States. The opioid crisis has taken hundreds of thousands of lives in the past 20 years, and it is predicted to take millions more. With the rising death tolls, it is essential that health care providers are able to use proper tools to treat OUD efficiently and effectively through medication-assisted treatment (MAT), particularly buprenorphine. Despite changes to buprenorphine regulations making it more accessible, clinicians have been slow to use buprenorphine to treat OUD. We believe that training student clinicians in evidence-based MAT and buprenorphine practices will address the training and competence barriers that hinder clinicians from prescribing buprenorphine to treat OUD. Students are in an ideal position to receive and benefit from this training and influence the medical community to better treat OUD.

Background As the United States continues to tackle the opioid epidemic, it is imperative for digital healthcare organizations to provide Internet users with accurate and accessible online resources so that they can make informed decisions with regards to their health. Objective The primary objectives were to adapt and modify a previously established usability methodology from literature, apply this modified methodology in order to perform usability analysis of opioid-use-disorder (OUD)-related websites, and make important recommendations that OUD-related digital health organizations may utilize to improve their online presence. Methods A list of 208 websites (later refined) was generated for usability testing using a modified Google Search methodology. Four keywords were chosen and used in the search: “DEA-X Waiver Training”, “opioid-use-disorder (OUD) Initiatives”, “Buprenorphine Assisted Treatment”, and “Opioid-Use Disorder Websites”. Usability analysis was performed concurrently with optimization of the methodology. OUD websites were analyzed and scored on several usability categories established by previous literature. Results “DEA-X Waiver Training” yielded websites that scored the highest average in “Accessibility” (0.84), while “Opioid-Use Disorder Websites” yielded websites that scored the highest average in “Content Quality” (0.67). “Buprenorphine Assisted Treatment” yielded websites that scored the highest average across “Marketing” (0.52), “Technology” (0.89), “General Usability” (0.69), and “Overall Usability” (0.68). “Technology” and “Marketing” were the highest and lowest scoring usability categories, respectively. T-test analysis revealed that each usability, except “Marketing” had a pair of one or more keywords that were significantly different with a p-value that was equal to or less than 0.05. Conclusions Based on the study findings, we recommend that digital organizations in the OUD space should improve their “General Usability” score by making their websites easier to find online. Doing so, may allow users, especially individuals in the OUD space, to discover accurate information that they are seeking. Based on the study findings, we also made important recommendations that OUD-related digital organizations may utilize in order to improve website usability as well as overall reach.

Background Memes have gone “viral,” gaining increasing prominence as an effective communications strategy based on their unique ability to engage, educate, and mobilize target audiences in a call to action through a cost-efficient and culturally relevant approach. Within the medical community in particular, visual media has evolved as a means to influence clinical knowledge transfer. To this end, the GetWaivered (GW) project has leveraged memes as part of a behavioral economics toolkit to address one of the most critical public health emergencies of our time—the 20-year opioid epidemic. As part of a multidimensional digital awareness campaign to increase Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)-X waiver course registration, GW investigated the results of meme usage in terms of impressions, website traffic, and ultimately user acquisition, as determined by web-based training enrollment and attendance outcomes. Objective The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of implementing humor-based promotional content versus the traditional educational model, and how the translation of the increase in engagement would increase the participant count and website traffic for GW’s remote DEA-X waiver training. Methods The approach to this study was based on 2 time frames (pre- and postcampaign). During April-July 2021, we developed a campaign via advertisements on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the GW website to expand outreach. These memes targeted medical professionals with the ability to prescribe buprenorphine. The time frame of this campaign measured engagement metrics and compared values to preceding months (January-March 2021) for our GetWaivered website and social media pages, which translated to registrants for our remote DEA-X waiver training. Results By the end of July 2021, a total of 9598 individuals had visited the GW website. There was an average of 79.3 visitors per day, with the lowest number of daily visitors being 0 and the highest being 575. Conclusions The use of memes may provide a medium for social media engagement (likes, comments, and shares) while influencing viewers to pursue a proposed action, such as e-training registration.

BACKGROUND Social media use by the public is at an all-time high and provides a convenient method of reaching broad audiences for public health agendas. Despite this, quantifying the impact of social media on health campaigns has proven to be a challenge, largely due to a lack of consistency in the metrics used, which can be unclear and variably effective. GetWaivered.com (GW) delivers and hosts free nationwide, remote DEA-X waiver training courses that enable clinicians to obtain their DEA-X so that they are able to prescribe Buprenorphine and effectively treat Opioid Use Disorder (OUD). Evaluating Get Waivered social media engagement can be key to increasing awareness of our course. OBJECTIVE This paper aims to evaluate the use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress for raising awareness of obtaining a DEA-X Waiver by determining the reach and engagement of the social media program. METHODS The intended target of the social media postings were clinicians who were eligible to prescribe buprenorphine. For our preliminary evaluation, we analyzed Facebook ads, Twitter, and Google Analytics data to measure engagement with our course advertisements. Twitter data such as impressions, engagements, engagement rate, and interactions (tweets, retweets, replies, likes) was assessed using exported excel data from Twitter Analytics and analyzed on Microsoft Word Excel. Facebook Ads reach, engagement, reactions, comments, shares, post clicks, cost, and cost per post engagement/event response/link click were assessed with Python using data from the Facebook platform. Google analytics data from the Google Analytics platform was used to analyze engagement metrics for the Get Waivered website. RESULTS Twitter posts generated a total of 16,643 impressions and 291 engagements. Facebook Ads generated a total of 36,008 reach, 6,173 engagement, and 321 clicks. Google Analytics showed that the WordPress blog (Get Waivered website) had a 477.80% increase in total users, a 475.10% increase in new users, 390.61% increase in sessions, and a 219.59% increase in page views between comparison periods. CONCLUSIONS This evaluation shows that social media posting does garner engagement while being more convenient than traditional forms of advertising. Since methods for analyzing social media use in public health is varied, these preliminary findings set a basis for developing social media posting structure and evaluation for future projects. The use of Twitter analytics and Facebook Ad insights allows GW to track which posts have large engagements and how to better interact with Twitter and Facebook users. This evaluation provides preliminary data and a framework as a baseline for planned future studies.

BACKGROUND As the United States continues to tackle the opioid epidemic, it is imperative for digital healthcare organizations to provide internet users accurate and accessible online resources so that they can make informed decisions with regards to their health. The aim of this study was to analyze the usability of opioid-use disorder (OUD) websites. OBJECTIVE The primary objectives of this study were based on the objectives established by previous literature but were adapted towards analyzing usability of OUD-related websites. The objectives were to adapt and modify a previously established usability methodology from literature, apply this modified methodology in order to analyze OUD websites, and make important recommendations that OUD-related digital health organizations may utilize to improve their online presence. METHODS A list of 208 websites (later refined to sample size of “n=96” websites) were generated for usability testing using a modified Google search methodology established by previous literature. Four keywords were chosen and used in the search: “DEA-X Waiver Training”, “OUD Initiatives”, “Buprenorphine Assisted Treatment” and “Opioid-Use Disorder Websites”. The list was compiled between April 20, 2021 and April 23, 2021. Using an usability methodology established by previous literature, website usability testing was performed from April 24, 2021 to May 19, 2021. Usability analysis was performed concurrently with optimization of the methodology. OUD websites were analyzed and scored on several usability categories. RESULTS “DEA-X Waiver Training” yielded websites that scored the highest average in “Accessibility” (0.84), while “Opioid-Use Disorder Websites” yielded websites that scored the highest average in “Content Quality” (0.67). “Buprenorphine Assisted Treatment” yielded websites that scored the highest average across “Marketing” (0.52), “Technology” (0.89), “General Usability” (0.69), and “Overall Usability” (0.68). “Technology” was the highest scoring usability category among all of the keywords. “Marketing” was the lowest scoring category among all keywords. Statistical T-test analysis revealed that each usability, except “Marketing” had a pair of one or more keywords that were significantly different with a P-value that was equal to or less than 0.05. CONCLUSIONS Based on the findings, we recommend that digital organizations in the OUD space should improve their “General Usability” score by making their websites more discoverable (thereby improving their “Marketing” usability score as well). Doing so, may allow many users, especially individuals in the OUD space, to discover pertinent and accurate information that they are seeking. In conclusion, the primary objectives of this study were addressed. A previously established usability methodology was adapted and modified for the analysis of OUD websites. Based on the study findings, we made important recommendations that OUD-related digital organizations may utilize in order to improve website usability as well as overall reach.