Predicting Fatal and Non-Fatal Overdose: Rapid Overdose Surveillance Dashboard

This project focuses on addressing the high burden of overdose, particularly involving fentanyl and stimulants, in Los Angeles County by improving surveillance and targeting addiction services. It is supported by a Diversity Supplement designed to train a Latinx/Native American Addiction Researcher, Sarah Clingan, PhD, under the NIH's HEAL Initiative. The major goals of the project include developing an online dashboard to collate data on overdose and substance use from various public health agencies in Los Angeles County; identifying overdose hotspots and nowcasting fatal and non-fatal overdose; and estimating the prevalence of injection drug use and opioid use disorder.

Dr. Clingan's research component within this supplement will utilize electronic health record (EHR) data from the parent grant to identify people with polysubstance use and create models of healthcare utilization. Specifically, her aims are to develop an algorithm to identify people with polysubstance use (opioids and stimulants) in EHR data and characterize healthcare utilization among those who co-use opioids and stimulants using natural language processing (NLP)-based approaches.

These results will enhance the understanding of polysubstance use in the county, identify gaps in healthcare services for this population, and provide preliminary data for future research. The long-term goal is to identify treatment needs in disadvantaged communities and support Dr. Clingan's transition to an independent researcher.

Contact PI: Alex Bui; Chelsea Leigh Shover (UCLA)

Funding Source:  NIH NIDA