Start | Committee Index | Author Index

Improving Prescription & Drug Surveillance for Mortality & Morbidity: A Collaborative Effort

Monday, June 10, 2013: 10:30 AM
103 (Pasadena Convention Center)
Scott Proescholdbell , North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Raleigh, NC
Terry Bunn , University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
Denise Paone , New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York City, NY
Len Paulozzi , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Renee Johnson , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Margaret Warner , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hyattsville, MD
Dagan Wright , Oregon Health Authority, Portland, OR
Barbara Gabella , Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Denver, CO
BACKGROUND:  This presentation will provide a comprehensive overview to the surveillance efforts of several key groups addressing drug overdose. With the May 2012 release of Safe States Injury Surveillance Workgroup’s (ISW7) Poisoning Recommendations, states and local jurisdictions began the process of translating the recommendations to public health practice. Two key groups (Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologist (CSTE) Drug Overdose Subcommittee and CDC’s Surveillance Quality Improvement (SQI) project) began to discuss, examine and test these recommendations as well as other essential surveillance consideration.  This presentation will cover a broad array of issues related to drug poisoning mortality surveillance, as well as, practical implications for injury programs at state and local levels.

METHODS:  A group of states and local jurisdictions participated in testing the definitions for drug poisoning mortality created in the ISW7. Four levels were created and tested, from basic reporting Level 1: using only underlying cause of death codes; Level 2: multiple cause codes; Level 3 and 4: a more advanced analysis involving an examination of literal text, ICD10- coding and toxicology findings. Table shells were created and validity of definitions were compared across sites. For morbidity, the development and piloting of a protocol that will be used to assess the accuracy and specificity of the ICD-9 CM coding.

RESULTS:  For mortality, table shells, How-to-Guide instructions, and special emphasis report (with standardized template for basic reporting) are developed or in development and will be shared.  A Special Emphasis report will be shared.  For morbidity, the tested protocol will be shared. Efforts are ongoing, with the goal of presenting state examples and analyses at the conference.

CONCLUSIONS:  Unintentional poisonings have increased significantly since 2000. However, public health surveillance of this problem has been lagging due to challenges in standardizing and reporting relevant health data. The ISW7 was written to address some of these issues and provide a conceptual framework for consideration. A group of key stakeholders has been testing and translating these recommendations into public health practice. At a minimum, every jurisdiction should be able to generate a common set of key variables and produce a standardized report describing their poisoning data.  This presentation will discuss some of the work to form consensus around poisoning surveillance efforts. Examples will be drawn at every level and include a number of stakeholders with experience using these tools. Additional levels of complexity are possible depending on access to additional data and surveillance capacity/infrastructure.

See more of: Injury
See more of: Breakout Sessions