This Phase I application proposes development of a Website, www.addiction-resources.com, to help managers of substance abuse service delivery systems evaluate and use assessment and outcomes data to improve quality of care. The Website will provide the tools to create a database of data from their own facility and the analytic tools to make useful comparisons between their own data and regional and national data. The Website will also include a Web-based course to help substance abuse managers learn to use the Website and to use clinical data for system change. The initial, core course will feature the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) and related measures for data collection, analysis and decision making. The goal is to bring to all managers the tools and knowledge to integrate client data into their management planning and decision-making. This project addresses the problem of managers facing demands to use client data to improve quality of care in a realistic and usable manner. Phase I will systematically design a database (to eventually be """"""""seeded"""""""" with over 35,000 ASIs), point-and-click analytic tools, and a Web.based training program. Phase II will provide a comprehensive test of the learning experience as well as the product's impact on treatment systems.
The commercial impact of this project is very promising. Managers of substance abuse treatment facilities are increasingly expected to employ client data in system-level decision-making. Despite such pressure, few """"""""typical"""""""" managers have the tools and knowledge to employ empirically- based management techniques. At the same time, substance abuse professionals are increasingly online and using distance learning on the Internet to obtain continuing credits. Integrated with other products of ITS, such as the ASI-MV, and promoted by our sponsor corporations, the proposed product should be exceedingly commercially successful.
