Searching for Missing Data on the Opioid Crisis
The MaRS Opioid Data Challenge
In my last blog, I wrote about Health Canada’s Challenge to improve on drug checking technology for the community of people who use drugs and those who support them. As Health Canada’s Government of Canada Entrepreneur, I am fortunate to be contributing to this and a number of other innovative approaches to addressing the opioid crisis.
Early in the new year, I will be a member of the MaRS Opioid Data Challenge judging panel. MaRS is a not-for-profit innovation hub dedicated to driving economic and social prosperity by harnessing the full potential of innovation. I’m thrilled to have been invited to take part in this challenge and am looking forward to reviewing the applications.
Submissions must be submitted online via the submission form on the HeroX.com website on or before January 23rd, 2019
The Challenge
With funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada, MaRS is seeking to engage innovative Canadians to “propose and test new data sets, sources and methodologies to bolster existing information and better measure opioid overdoses and harms in our communities”.
Identifying data gaps
Compiling national data on opioid use and related harms is a difficult process, relying primarily on emergency or medical services information, hospitalization records, and coroner and medical examiner reports from across many jurisdictions. Complicating things further is that many harms linked to the problematic use of opioids go undocumented. One example includes incidences of overdoses that don’t involve an emergency or medical response (e.g. if members of the community deliver naloxone and EMS services are not called).
Timely and accurate data, particularly on non-fatal overdoses occurring in communities, remains limited.
Key Challenge Elements
Potential applicants are asked to: (1) Select a Canadian Community; (2) Choose from among the overdose categories of data to report on; and (3) Collect data on the number of overdoses, including the location and date of each. Innovations collecting “additional defining factors” (e.g. individual history, services provided, substances involved, etc.) will get bonus points.
Innovators must select at least one of the following overdose categories (but priority is given to Category 1):
Category 1: Suspected non-fatal opioid overdoses where community supports were utilized (i.e. emergency or medical services were not involved)
Category 2: Suspected non-fatal opioid overdoses where emergency or medical services were involved
Category 3: Suspected fatal opioid overdoses
Challenge Structure
The challenge is divided into two phases:
Phase 1 — Propose and Develop: Applicants identify and propose data sources and methodologies to measure opioid overdoses occurring in a Canadian community of their choice. Up to five $10,000 awards will be given to challenge finalists for use in the continued development of their concept during Phase 2.
Phase 2 — Extension: Finalists apply the data sources and/or methodology used in the previous phase to a different community in Canada. This phase will help to establish the wide-range applicability of the solutions. Up to two $50,000 awards will be available for each challenge winner.
Challenge Deadline
Submissions must be submitted online via the submission form on the HeroX.com website on or before January 23rd, 2019.
Opioids data, surveillance and research in Canada
I’d like to take this opportunity to emphasize again that collecting data on the crisis is difficult. The Government of Canada works closely with the provinces and territories to collect and share data on opioid-related harms (including deaths). With support from Health Canada, the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) has worked very hard to improve the evidence base, address data gaps, and monitor opioid use and harms across the country. It is a collective approach, with the help of many organizations.
More information on data, surveillance, and research gathered across the country to help inform the Government of Canada about opioid drug use and its impacts can be found here.
Unfortunately, the incidence of opioid-related overdoses continues to increase (driven largely by fentanyl and its analogues). Despite our collective efforts, there is a continued need for reliable sources of data on opioid use to better inform the development of effective prevention and treatment strategies, policies, and initiatives.
I’m optimistic that the MaRS Opioid Data Challenge will help to uncover innovative pathways to seek out and collect missing data on the crisis. Good luck to all participants!
