Data help us understand variation and target our efforts to make the most impact. Your opioid safety coalition can use county and zip code-level prescription and public health data to understand your region and see the impact of your work through trends over time.

Prescription data come from CURES, California’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), showing several ways of looking at the volume of opioids in a community (total prescriptions and morphine milligram equivalents) and people at high risk (number of people on high-dose opioids, using multiple prescribers, or using opioids and benzos together). Public health data include opioid-related emergency visits, hospitalizations, and overdose deaths. Access to medication-assisted addiction treatment can be shown by number of buprenorphine prescribers and prescriptions.

Speakers cover what the data can and can’t tell us and how to look for trends, and they answer your questions. Hear from:

• Steve Wirtz, PhD, Chief of Injury Surveillance and Epidemiology Section of the Safe and Active Communities Branch, California Department of Public Health
• Peter Kreiner, PhD, Senior Scientist, Prescription Monitoring Program Center of Excellence, Brandeis University

A recording of the event and the presentation slides are available below.