The Prescriptive Opioid Emergency in the Wake of COVID-19 | Part II

The Prescriptive Opioid Emergency in the Wake of COVID-19 | Part II - D e e p i n d e r

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Artificial Intelligence (AI), automated data deconfliction, and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can help by providing key stakeholders with the tools they need to stem the tide of prescriptive opioid abuse. Namely, Law Enforcement and Regulatory Bodies: live investigative tools to help understand where opioid-related incidents are happening and the individuals who may be responsible. Tools that provide the predictive attributes along with investigative tools that allow enforcement and regulatory bodies the ability to leverage the integrated datasets for physician licensing and pharmaceutical investigations.

Preventative Agencies: Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Department of Education, and Department of Health and Human Services are in a unique position to apply preventative methodologies to stem the tide of Opioid Abuse. These agencies require tools for targeted education campaigns to improve the public’s understanding of substance use disorders, as well as source evidence-based treatments and apply prevention strategies to support a broader adoption of Assisted Outpatient Treatment and Assertive Community Treatment models.

Executive: Key stakeholders all analysis, statistics, and measurements on the current State of the Opioid Epidemic, on-going operations, and marketing, and campaign effectiveness in order to derive insight on which regulations and/or legislation may need to be addressed to combat the opioid epidemic.

Additionally, gathering data and analytics can help us better understand the social and clinical trends that could potentially contribute to the opioid crisis is essential.

To help facilitate the inclusion of trends on a national level, leaders have to be technologically equipped to integrate with external sources. The FDA is one such example. In 2019, the FDA set out to create a large-scale data warehouse as a first effort to improve its past initiatives to end the opioid epidemic. In a 2018 press release, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb M.D stated: “This warehouse can facilitate data analytics, including machine learning algorithms, to help better assess vulnerability points in the population through predictive analytics, identify early trends that may be contributing to the epidemic, and target early regulatory changes to address the changing opioid epidemic.�

One of the most impactful ways data analytics can assist in combatting the misuse of opioids focuses on the behavioral analytics that determines the potential risk factors for a patient to develop a dependency on an opioid prescription. The idea is, that the use of big data will help providers pinpoint what patients are at high risk. Or, as Inside Big Data comments, “Combining medical records with patient behavior and history to determine risk factors using big data tools, is one of the best ways to fight the epidemic.” Data analytics paves a road for accountability and monitoring of how and when opioids are prescribed by providers during the pandemic. Integrated analysis during isolation and quarantine can reduce the potential for prescription abuse and improving the knowledge and decision-making power of providers.

UNDERSTANDING SAMHSA GUIDANCE Analytics will not win the war on illegal prescriptive opioid alone. In the fight against the national opioid crisis, various governments and organizations have taken many steps toward combatting the misuse of opioids. Over the last two years, the FDA specifically, noted the following initiatives;

Regulating prescribing measures Implementing new policies Providing more education and resources to both patients and providers Increase in addiction recovery support resources R&D in non-addictive pain treatments Data analytics, internet monitoring of online opioid sales

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), as part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, serves to lead public health initiatives to advance the behavioral health of the nation. SAMHSA’s mission is to reduce the impact of substance abuse and mental illness on America’s communities.SAMHSA stands ready to provide State and Local leaders guidance and resources to assist individuals, providers, communities, and states across the country. This support includes grant funds that can support opioid prevention strategies during the time of COVID and disaster planning handbooks for behavioral health professionals. SAMHSA has provided evidence-based guidance to health professionals which, include inpatient, outpatient, and residential treatment options. SAMHSA also recommends the use of telehealth and/or telephonic services to provide evaluation and treatment of patients. These resources can be used for initial evaluations, including evaluations for consideration of the use of buprenorphine products to treat opioid use disorder. Further, these resources can be used to implement individual or group therapies such as evidence-based interventions, including cognitive behavioral therapy for mental and/or substance use disorders.

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