About this webinar:

Opioids initiated for acute pain, particularly post-surgery, can be a precursor to long-term use, increasing the risk of opioid-related harm. This seminar focused on understanding the scale of prescription opioid use following hospital presentation, with a particular focus on estimating the incidence of long-term use among those who were previously opioid-naive. Findings from a recent linked data study on opioid initiation and long-term use after emergency department (ED) visits or hospitalisations in New South Wales, Australia, between 2014 and 2022 were presented.

About the speakers:

Dr Malcolm Gillies is a biostatistician in the Medicines Intelligence Research Program at the School of Population Health UNSW, with particular experience working on linked administrative health data. His current areas of research include prescription opioids, ADHD, and replicability of pharmacoepidemiology research.

Kendal Chidwick is a pharmacoepidemiologist at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, UNSW. She is currently supporting a research program on the use of pharmaceutical opioids and medicines for opioid agonist therapy. Much of her experience comes from leading drug utilization and post-market surveillance research based on linked administrative and general practice data.