6 Building Blocks (6BB)
Keywords
Practice facilitation; substance use; opioid use
Type of Project
Practice Based Research
Summary
The Six Building Blocks (6BB) initiative, supported by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), was a 15-month practice transformation program focused on improving chronic pain management and safe opioid prescribing in primary care. Through collaboration between the Colorado Community Health Network (CCHN) and the University of Colorado Department of Family Medicine, the initiative provided implementation support, clinician education, evidence-based resources, and shared learning opportunities. The program aimed to strengthen guideline-driven care for patients with chronic pain or long-term opioid therapy, improve prescribing practices, and support safer, more effective pain management.
Significance
The Six Building Blocks initiative addressed critical challenges in chronic pain management and opioid prescribing by promoting evidence-based practices in primary care. The project demonstrated the importance of clinician education, practice transformation, and standardized approaches to improving patient safety and supporting responsible opioid prescribing.
Impact
The initiative equipped primary care teams with training, implementation support, and practical resources to strengthen chronic pain management and safe opioid prescribing. Through shared learning and evidence-based guidance, the project supported improvements in clinical workflows and prescribing practices, with the potential to reduce opioid-related risks and improve patient safety.
Translational Science Benefits Model* Benefits | ||
| Demonstrated: Benefits are those that have been observed and verifiable. Potential: Benefits are those logically expected with moderate to high confidence | ||
| Provided evidence-based educational resources, expert-led training, and shared learning opportunities to help primary care clinicians improve chronic pain management and safe opioid prescribing. Demonstrated |  | Health Education Resources
|
| Provided practice transformation and implementation support to help primary care teams adopt guideline-driven approaches to managing chronic pain and long-term opioid therapy. Demonstrated | | Health Care Delivery |
| Supported the adoption of standardized approaches to opioid prescribing, patient monitoring, and chronic pain management to improve the quality and consistency of care. Potential | | Health Care Quality |
*The Translational Science Benefits Model is a framework designed to help public health and clinical scientists demonstrate the impact of their work in the real world. The Translational Science Benefits Model and Translating for Impact Toolkit © 2017-2023, created by the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and available at translationalsciencebenefitsmodel.wustl.edu, is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).