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Prescription Drugs

In a 2007 survey of public health officials in the United States, International Society for Disease Surveillance found that only 7% used pharmacy prescription sales data for surveillance (1). There have been many reports suggesting effective use of prescription sales data in syndromic surveillance (2, 3, 4, 5). Community pharmacies can provide a valuable supplementary tool for syndromic surveillance of infectious diseases.

Objective

To examine if the prescription sales data from a large retail pharmacy chain in the US were comparable to Google Flu trends and CDC’s US ILI Network data as flu activity indicator.

 

 

Submitted by uysz on

This is a preliminary Chronic Pain-Related Syndrome, created to search relevant ICD10 and a few key terms in emergency department visits in ESSENCE. The codes and terms are specific to non-cancer related chronic pain with exclusions of cases receiving cancer-related ICD10.

ICD10 codes were selected by translating the following ICD9 codes for Chronic Pain contained in this PDF (https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/pdf/pdo_guide_to_icd-9-cm_and_icd-10_c…)

Submitted by ZSteinKS on

The attached query was developed to track medication refill encounters in emergency departments in ESSENCE during evacuations or extended mass gathering events. The query was initially developed for use with the chief complaint, triage note, and discharge diagnosis code (ICD-10 CM). 

 

Submitted by Anonymous on

Opioid overdoses are a growing cause of mortality in the United States. Medical prescriptions for opioids are a risk factor for overdose. This observation raises concerns that patients may seek multiple opioid prescriptions, possibly increasing their overdose risk. One route for obtaining those prescriptions is visiting the emergency department (ED) for pain-related complaints. Here, two hypotheses related to prescription seeking and overdoses are tested. (1) Overdose patients have a larger number of prior ED visits than matched controls. (2) Overdose patients have distinct patterns of pain-related complaints compared to matched controls.

Objective:

Identifying text features of emergency department visits associated with risk of future drug overdose.

Submitted by elamb on

Nationally and in Wisconsin, heroin is the leading cause of opioid related death and hospitalization. Opioids are commonly prescribed for pain. Every day, over 1,000 people are treated in emergency departments for misusing prescription opioids. In 2015, more than 15,000 people died from overdoses involving prescription opioids. Approximately, three out of four heroin users report having abused prescription opioids prior to using heroin. In Wisconsin from 2010 to 2014 the number of deaths involving any opioid increased by 51% and for heroin increased by 192%. Through the federal government funding and support Wisconsin has established a statewide tool to help combat the ongoing prescription drug abuse epidemic by providing valuable information about controlled substance prescriptions that are dispensed in the state. PDMP is continue to be among the most promising state-level interventions to improve opioid prescribing, inform clinical practice, and protect patients at risk.

Objective:

Using the Wisconsin Enhanced Opioid Surveillance System, the present study evaluates the heroin hospitalization risk among the opioid recipients using the Prescription Drug Monitoring Data (PDMP) with following specific objectives: 1. Evaluate the risk of heroin overdose hospitalization following the prescription of opioid. 2. Assess the time elapsed between last prescribed opioid and first heroin overdose hospitalization. 3. Identify the main predictors of heroin overdose hospitalization among prescribed opioid users.

Submitted by elamb on
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