Research to Address the Opioid Crisis: Approaches to Data Linkage

To combat the public health crisis associated with the opioid overdose epidemic, HHS will host an Opioid Code-a-Thon on December 6-7, 2017 to develop data driven solutions to combat the opioid epidemic.  This Data Brief presents an overview of the data sources that could be leveraged to study the opioid crisis within each of the five HHS strategic areas, highlights some of the key research questions within these areas, and summarizes data linking strategies that can be used to support research on opioids.  This brief is based on a forthcoming ASPE report that will provide expanded details and examples of data sources and linkages for studying the opioid crisis.  The brief is intended to inform participants in HHS' Opioid Code-a-Thon and to encourage new studies that use existing data to generate information that improves the understanding of opioid addiction, overdoses, and the populations that are affected by the opioid crisis.