OralOpioids: Harnessing R Programming and Data Science to Combat Opioid Misuse

Area of Science:

• Pharmacology
• Public Health
• Data Science

Background:

• Canada faces significant per-capita pharmaceutical opioid consumption.
• There is a need for specialized research tools to analyze opioid prescription data.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce the OralOpioids R package, a novel research tool for analyzing opioid prescriptions in Canada.
• Provide a comprehensive platform for the in-depth study of pharmaceutical opioid consumption.

Main Methods:

• Utilizes Health Canada's Drug Product Database (DPD) for authorized oral opioids.
• Filters drug identification numbers (DINs) by narcotic schedules and administration routes.
• Calculates morphine equivalent dose (MED) using the CDC table and Canadian guidelines.

Main Results:

• The OralOpioids package demonstrates high accuracy in MED calculations.
• Exhibits a near-perfect correlation (R-squared = 0.99) when compared to established opioid calculators like MDCalc, Oregon Pain, and Ohio Pain.

Conclusions:

• The OralOpioids package is a significant advancement for researching and monitoring Canada's opioid landscape.
• Its ability to include discontinued opioids provides historical insight and supports post-marketing surveillance.
• The tool is valuable for researchers, healthcare providers, and policymakers, with potential for global application.