Trends in prescription opioid analgesic use in Australia from 2015 to 2022.

Background: Recent measures to curb use and harms of pharmaceutical opioids in Australia have reduced dispensings of opioid analgesics for pain, under Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). But information on trends in private (self-funded) dispensings and public (government-funded) hospital opioids use is not readily available. Our study describes eight-year population-level trends in Australia's prescribed opioid analgesic use, estimating PBS dispensing claims, private dispensings and hospital use.

Long-term prescribed opioid use after hospitalization or emergency department presentation among opioid naïve adults (2014-2020)-A population-based descriptive cohort study.

Aims: The aim of this work is to describe opioid initiation and long-term use after emergency department (ED) visits or hospitalizations in New South Wales, Australia, by patient, admission and clinical characteristics.

Methods: This is a population-based cohort study, including all hospitalizations and ED visits between 2014 and 2020, linked to medicine dispensings, deaths and cancer registrations (Medicines Intelligence Data Platform), among adults with no opioid dispensings in the previous year. Outcome measures were opioid initiations (dispensed within 7 days of discharge) and long-term use (90 days of continuous exposure, 90-270 days after initiation).

Trends in use of medicines for opioid agonist treatment in Australia, 2013-2022.

Background: There are limited longitudinal data on national patterns of opioid agonist treatment (OAT). This study describes 10-year trends in the sales of OAT medicines in Australia.

Methods: A descriptive and time-series analysis of methadone, sublingual (SL) buprenorphine (+/-naloxone), and long-acting injectable (LAI) buprenorphine sold in Australia between 2013 and 2022 was performed.

Evaluating the accuracy of data extracted from electronic health records into MedicineInsight, a national Australian general practice database.

Introduction: MedicineInsight is a database containing de-identified electronic health records (EHRs) from over 700 Australian general practices. Previous research validated algorithms used to derive medical condition flags in MedicineInsight, but the accuracy of data fields following EHR extractions from clinical practices and data warehouse transformation processes have not been formally validated.

Objectives: To examine the accuracy of the extraction and transformation of EHR fields for selected demographics, observations, diagnoses, prescriptions, and tests into MedicineInsight.