While accounting for more than 6025 nonfatal and 2350 fatal overdoses in Arizona between January 2021 to September 2022, Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) is the most common relapsing disorder, characterized by addictive habits caused by the brain’s reward neurocircuits (Degenhardt et al., 2020). Access to Medication for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) is necessary to prevent opioid dependence and possible overdoses. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships between MOUD prescription numbers, retail prescription costs, and individual drug costs in rural and urban Arizona areas. Heatmaps were created to illustrate the geographical relationships between the average changes overtime. The total averages between the prescription numbers and retail prescription costs over time yielded a moderate positive linear relationship between the two. The relationships between the number of MOUD prescriptions and the average retail costs per zip code allowed for the identification of the most and least affected zip codes in the state as well as rural areas. Twelve rural zip codes were identified as having high prescription numbers with high retail costs whereas the rest had either high prescription numbers with low retail costs, low prescription numbers with high retail costs, or low prescription numbers with low retail costs. Based on these findings, potential social and economic variables may be able to be identified in future studies.

Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) is a telemedicine knowledge sharing hub for clinicians, managers, administrators, and other health-care providers that integrates physical and behavioral health in underserved areas. The importance of behavioral health integration is that it allows providers to target complex conditions. For example, the top ten causes of morbidity and mortality in the US have modifiable behavioral factors and unhealthy lifestyles (Mokdad et al., 2004). This health care has the potential to increase quality healthcare and accessibility to health while decreasing health care costs. ECHO participants gain better patient care skills, professional development, sharing new knowledge, and an opportunity to develop a community of learning. Despite the potential benefits, participation in ASU ECHO has been declining. This study assesses the barriers and facilitators to participation. The results suggest that the biggest barrier for participants is time and a facilitator for this is calendar technology like outlook.