Pharmacy school creates website to track overdose deaths
The University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy School has developed a website that will track drug overdoses in some Pennsylvania counties.
West Virginia panel targets doctors, pharmacies linked to overdoses
The website, OverdoseFreePa.Pitt.edu, currently receives overdose data from medical examiners’ offices in 13 Pennsylvania counties. It provides statistic information such as gender, age, location, race, and type of drug involved in the death.
“There was a need for this information,” said Sherry Aasen, project manager for the website, told Triblive.com. “Ideally, we’d like to have this created for the entire state. It’s a growing process.”
The co-chairman of the Westmoreland County’s Drug Overdose Prevention Task Force, Dirk Matson, said the website would help healthcare officials and addiction specialists identity and react to trends.
“One real example is that last year in Allegheny County, the number of deaths went up in the younger age categories,” Dirkson told Triblive.com. “Allegheny County could be a predictor for us, as we’re a year behind some of their trends. It gives us a blueprint to work ahead.”
The website also provides information about overdose prevention and links to drug treatment programs. “Overdose is a national epidemic, resulting in thousands of deaths per year in the United States. The problem of overdose is perceived to exist in urban settings, however, the overdose epidemic has spread throughout suburban and rural communities at alarming rates,” a statement on the website reads. “The problem is especially severe in Pennsylvania, due to increasing misuse of prescription pain medications. In some counties, drug overdose deaths outnumber all other types of accidental deaths combined, including motor vehicle deaths.”
The statement continues: “The overall goal of this project is to increase community awareness and knowledge of overdose and overdose prevention strategies as well as to support initiatives aimed at decreasing drug overdoses and deaths within the participating counties.”
- Year
- Age
- Gender
- Race
- Number of Drugs Present
- Top 10 Drugs Present by Year
- Drug Type by Gender
- Map – Incident Zip Code
- Map – Residence Zip Code
If you notice the data points gathered.. apparently makes no reference if the “dead person” had been diagnosed with any disease issues, was ever diagnosed or currently or ever been treated for mental health issues or some other subjective disease.
There seems to be no data point as to the person’s health/mental status before the “overdose” happened… were they suicidal … were they a chronic pain pt that was unable to get their medication and/or the prescriber had been reducing their dose and they were no longer able to tolerate their typical pain level.
This sort of like trying to determine what made people die from a plane crash.. and not try to figure out what caused the plane to crash. Chances are everyone on a commercial plane crash died of blunt force trauma or smoke inhalation. Why did the plane fall out of the sky ?… What trigger the person to take what ended up being a overdose ?
Filed under: General Problems
Exactly what I was thinking while reading your post. I was an honor student in statistical calculus in college an it is unbelievable to me how these so called intellectuals put together such incomplete information gathering on topics that would effect people’s lives. It will be one sided to support their agenda an not the entire picture. How can you not ask the questions that you presented. Thank you for your work trying to educate everyone about what’s really happening instead of what they want the public to believe .
Why can’t people understand that there’s a difference between patients that have the medication prescribed or if it’s a self bought or stolen medication. I am so interested in knowing if the overdoses are from those that do not follow instructions or if it’s a addiction problem. Hoping it’s added to the list. Common sense.
The medical industry’s new buzzword is biopsychosocial, as Wikipedia defines:
“The biopsychosocial model (abbreviated ‘BPS’) is a general model or approach stating that biological, psychological (which entails thoughts, emotions, and behaviors), and social (socio-economical, socio-environmental, and cultural) factors, all play a significant role in human functioning in the context of disease or illness.”
So why isn’t this model a part of these kinds of tracking measures? Probably because the DEA does most (if not all) of the tracking, and the criminal injustice industry is not interested in using biopsychosocial models.