Spring 2012 News
- UNC IPRC celebrates 25th anniversary and the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control celebrates 20th anniversary.
- Letter from Interim Director Steve Marshall
- Dr. Carol Runyan Leaves Lasting Legacy to Center
- New Fund Honors Runyan's Legacy, supports junior faculty
- Donor Profile: Ginger Yang
- Faculty Profile: Adam Zolotor, MD, DrPH,
- Evaluation Core Growing Rapidly
- Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention New IPRC Focus
- IPRC Rewards Injury Advocates
- Register now for the 2012 Injury and Violence Prevention Conference, May 9 in Chapel Hill
- John D. Butts Scholarship Names First Recipient.
- Fall 2011 IPRC Seminars
- Recent UNC IPRC Leadership & Honors
- IPRC Alumni Updates
- SELECTED CURRENT IPRC PROJECT: LONGSCAN legacy translated into current policy and practice recommendations using innovative translation and dissemination strategy, funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
- SELECTED CURRENT IPRC PROJECT: NC-ACE: The nation's first rural Academic Center of Excellence in Youth Violence Prevention
- PARTNER NEWS: UNC Highway Safety Research Center
Prescription Drug Overdose Prevention: New IPRC Focus
By Stephanie Gillam, Journalism InternUnintentional poisoning recently surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of unintentional injury death among certain age groups in the U.S. A dramatic increase in prescription drug overdose is driving this epidemic.
The CDC defines poison as any substance that harms the body when ingested, inhaled, inject ed or absorbed through the skin, noting that any substance can be poisonous if too much is taken. Prescription drugs – particularly opioid pain medi cations - are the substance involved in the vast majority of unintentional poisoning incidents.
In light of these circumstances, the core has made prescription drug poisoning-related programs a primary focus of its evaluation efforts, and is cur rently engaged in the evaluation of a number of programs.
In one of its active projects, the core is evalu ating a program that analyzes the process by which physicians prescribe medications in emergency department settings. The funded study aims to reduce emergency department (ED) prescriptions given to patients who frequent EDs to secure opioid medication.
Another current project is the core’s evaluation of the state’s prescription drug-monitoring program. North Carolina’s Controlled Substance Report ing System is an online system that physicians and pharmacists can consult if they suspect that their patients are at risk of misusing opioid medications. The study seeks to understand the usage of the program by doctors and pharmacists and its impact on NC residents.
In evaluation efforts of a community-based program, the core has partnered with Project Lazarus in Wilkes County, a multi-pronged ini tiative that is the first of its kind in the country. The core is working with Project Lazarus to develop a proposal to evalu ate the expansion of the program across the state. Also in the proposal stage is an evaluation of the state’s implementation of a new policy to check Medicaid records for past evidence of drug-seeking behavior.
Garrettson says that a large component of the core’s success in its poisoning efforts thus far has been its collaboration with key people and institutions in the field, including the Carolina Poisoning Cen ter and with NC-DHHS Division of Public Health injury epidemiologist Scott Proescholdbell.
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