At-a-glance - Concurrent monitoring of opioid prescribing practices and opioid-related deaths: the context in Nova Scotia, Canada

Abstract

Timely public health surveillance is required to understand trends in opioid use and harms. Here, opioid dispensing data from the Nova Scotia Prescription Monitoring Program are presented alongside fatality data from the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service. Concurrent monitoring of trends in these data sources is essential to detect population-level effects (whether intended or unintended) of interventions related to opioid prescribing.

Keywords

• public health surveillance, opioid-related disorders, prescription drug monitoring programs, coroners and medical examiners