| Improve prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) data collection and data quality, by establishing interstate data-sharing agreements for PDMP data. |
Experience-based for reducing prescription opioid misuse: Interstate data sharing of PMDP is a practice associated with the efficacy of PDMPs. When implemented effectively, PDMPs reduce overprescribing, which, in turn, may reduce prescription opioid misuse. However, research to support this practice for reducing prescription opioid misuse is insufficient. |
Policy |
| Support comprehensive use mandates for prescribers and dispensers to increase prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) utilization. |
Experience-based for reducing prescription opioid misuse: Comprehensive prescriber use mandates are associated with fewer opioid prescriptions and fewer incidents of pill shopping (when patients visit multiple prescribers or pharmacies to obtain the same or similar drugs over a short period of time). However, research to support this policy for reducing prescription opioid misuse is insufficient. |
Policy |
| Expand delegate access to the prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP). |
Experience-based for reducing prescription opioid misuse: Expanding delegate access to PDMPs may increase PDMP utilization, especially in states lacking comprehensive use mandates. However, research to support this policy for reducing prescription opioid misuse is not available. |
Policy |
| Mandate prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) enrollment by prescribers and dispensers. |
Experience-based for reducing prescription opioid misuse: A time-series analysis based on eight years of data from California suggests that PDMP use increased after a mandatory PDMP registration law was enacted. However, research to support this policy for reducing prescription opioid misuse is insufficient. |
Policy |
| Enhance the usability and functionality of statewide prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP) by partnering with lead PDMP agencies, software vendors, and relevant stakeholders. |
Experience-based for reducing prescription opioid misuse: Preliminary research suggests that enhancing PDMP usability and functionality increases PDMP utilization. This, in turn, may reduce overprescribing and limit patients' ability to misuse prescription opioids. However, research to support this practice for reducing prescription opioid misuse is not sufficient. |
Practice |
| Develop or support passive surveillance systems that generate reports to monitor cases of opioid use disorder, fatal and nonfatal opioid overdose, and opioid-related diseases such as neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) and infective endocarditis. |
Experience-based for reducing opioid use disorder and opioid overdose: Passive surveillance systems help public health officials monitor disease patterns and identify potential outbreaks so that rapid response teams and stakeholder coalitions can be organized to respond. Improving public health response to epidemiologic data may, in turn, reduce negative opioid-related outcomes. However, research to support this policy for reducing opioid use disorder and opioid overdose is insufficient. |
Practice |
| Develop or expand active surveillance systems to solicit data on opioid use disorder, opioid overdose, and opioid-related diseases from passive surveillance systems, syndromic surveillance systems, and real-time data sources to rapidly predict and detect outbreak "hot spots" and disease clusters. |
Experience-based for reducing opioid use disorder and opioid overdose: High quality active surveillance data provides public health leaders access to valid, reliable, and up-to-date information for data-driven decisionmaking. Policy decisions based on high quality data are more likely to result in measurable impacts on opioid use disorder and opioid overdose. However, research to support this practice for reducing opioid use disorder and opioid overdose is insufficient. |
Practice |
| Create or improve statewide data dashboard so health agency leadership and partners have increased access to timely and accurate reporting on key substance use indicators, as well as to access to easy-to-interpret data visualizations. |
Experience-based for reducing opioid use disorder and opioid overdose: Statewide data dashboards that provide timely, accurate reporting of key indicators provide public health leaders and state legislators with a tool for tracking progress and for developing effective responses to the opioid epidemic. However, research to support this tool for reducing opioid use disorder and opioid overdose is insufficient. |
Practice |
| Expand or improve the use of multiple innovative, real-time surveillance systems and tools (such as the Overdose Detection Mapping Application [ODMAP] or RxStat) to rapidly predict and/or detect outbreak "hot spots" and disease clusters. |
Experience-based for reducing opioid overdose: As of 2017, more than 29 states and 400 agencies had agreements with HIDTA to implement ODMAP. By increasing access to near real-time data, ODMAP can make public health and public safety responses to overdose outbreak clusters more timely and more effective. However, research to support this practice for reducing substance use disorders is insufficient. |
Program |
| Conduct regular local- and state-level needs assessments that engage multiple stakeholders to identify service gaps and inform the selection of evidence-based programs. |
Experience-based for reducing substance use disorders: Federal agencies like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) address substance use prevention using the Strategic Prevention Framework, which employs a community-based needs assessment to review substance use problems, empirically-derived risk factors, and other conditions that might contribute to the problem in order to help identify and select evidence-based substance use prevention programs. However, research to support this tool for reducing substance use disorders is insufficient. |
Practice |