Integrating a low-barrier drug checking platform into public health responses to overdose

将低门槛药物检查平台纳入公共卫生应对过量用药的过程中

• 批准号: 549668-2020
• 负责人: Hore, DennisDK
• 金额: $ 7.37万
• 依托单位: University of Victoria
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Collaborative Health Research Projects
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=747446
• 关键词: Integrating; low; barrier; drug; checking

Measures to ensure a safer drug supply are an essential component of reducing overdosedeaths. Fentanyl test strips are fast, sensitive, and cheap, but cannot provide any informationon potency, purity, or the existence of other harmful adulterants. There is an urgent need fortechnologies that can identify all components present and provide information on theconcentration of active ingredients. British Columbia is the epicenter of Canadas overdosecrisis and Vancouver Island experiences overdose deaths rates more than twice the nationalaverage. Researchers and student trainees at the University of Victoria are leaders inemploying portable spectroscopy to drug checking as a public health response to overdose.In collaboration with Island Health Authority, we propose to expand on our current drugchecking services to champion one technology which has the potential to meet all needs:highly sensitive to detect low concentrations, low cost to enable broad distribution, and easeof use to either eliminate, or significantly reduce the need for scientists to operate instrumentsand interpret results. We are a unique collaboration of Chemistry and Social Work supportedby Computer Sciences working within a Patient Oriented Research framework that engageshealth care users, health care providers and health system decision makers. Our experiencein operating a suite of the best portable spectrometers available in health and harm reductionsettings informs this proposal to construct and implement an integrated platform thatcontinues technological advances to improve portability, capability, speed and accuracy butalso at a lower-cost and with a user interface that does not require employing highly trainedtechnicians. Our project proposes a drug checking platform that has the potential to overcomethe obstacles of instrument and staffing costs to facilitate public health to most fully integratedrug checking within the overdose strategies.

确保更安全的药品供应的措施是减少过量死亡的重要组成部分。芬太尼试纸快速、灵敏、廉价，但不能提供有关效力、纯度或其他有害掺杂物存在的任何信息。迫切需要一种能够识别所有存在的成分并提供有效成分浓度信息的技术。不列颠哥伦比亚省是加拿大吸毒过量的震中，温哥华岛的吸毒过量死亡率是全国平均水平的两倍多。维多利亚大学的研究人员和学生实习生是使用便携式光谱学进行药物检查作为对过量服药的公共卫生反应的领导者。我们建议与岛屿卫生当局合作，扩大我们目前的药物检查服务，以支持一种有潜力满足所有需求的技术：对低浓度检测具有高度敏感性，低成本使其能够广泛传播，并且易于使用，可以消除或显著减少科学家操作仪器和解释结果的需要。我们是化学和社会工作的独特合作伙伴，由计算机科学支持，在以患者为中心的研究框架内工作，参与医疗保健用户、医疗保健提供者和医疗系统决策者的工作。我们在运营一套在健康和减少危害环境中可用的最佳便携式光谱仪方面的经验告诉我们，构建和实施一个集成平台的建议，该平台继续技术进步，以提高便携性、能力、速度和准确性，而且成本更低，用户界面不需要雇用训练有素的技术人员。我们的项目提出了一个药物检查平台，该平台有可能克服仪器和人员成本的障碍，以促进公共卫生，使之最全面地整合到过量用药战略中的地毯检查中。