Lucinda Burns

Honorary Associate Professor

We will identify a population cohort of people who use opioids, examine hospitalisations and emergency department visits in this group and determine the impacts of opioid substitution therapy on hospitalisation and emergency department visits.

Potential PhD students and post-doctoral fellows should contact Dr Sarah Larney to find out more about becoming involved in this project.

Project Collaborators External

Dr Mark Montebello South East Sydney Local Health District

Project Supporters

Burnet Institute / NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence into Injecting Drug Use (CREIDU) Seed Funding Shared Grant

Opioid dependence is the leading contributor to illicit drug disease burden globally and in Australia. People with opioid use disorders have high rates of hospitalisation and emergency department presentations related to opioids and injecting drug use, imposing substantial costs on the health system. Opioid substitution therapy reduces negative health impacts of opioid dependence and injecting drug use, and therefore may be an effective intervention to reduce hospitalisation and emergency department presentation in this group.

Determine the impacts and cost implications of opioid substitution therapy on hospitalisation and emergency department presentations of people who use opioids
Determine the effectiveness of opioid substitution therapy in reducing mortality of people with opioid use disorders after hospital separation or emergency department presentation.

Design and Method

This is a retrospective observational cohort study using linked administrative data. Data sources include the NSW Pharmaceutical Drugs of Addiction System (PHDAS), the NSW Admitted Patients Data Collection (APDC), the NSW Emergency Department Data Collection (EDDC), and the National Death Index.

Progress/Update

All data linkage has been completed. Data cleaning is underway, along with the development of an algorithm to identify opioid use disorders in hospital and ED data.