Aspects of an Early Warning System: Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN)

Location: International Ballroom F OMNI - The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) is a nationwide public health surveillance system that captures data on emergency department (ED) visits related to recent substance use directly from the electronic health records of participating hospitals. Key objectives of DAWN are to monitor and identify trends in substance-related ED visits; provide timely data and serve as an early warning system identifying emerging and novel psychoactive substances and/or combinations of substances; and provide national estimates.

This session will cover:

1. Introduction ― DAWN background and vision.

2. Methodology for hospital selection for early warning ― The DAWN design ensures representation from areas characterized by social vulnerabilities of high-risk populations. Hospital selection utilized geographic characteristics to support epidemiologic investigations, better allocation of resources for prevention, treatment, and recovery for policymakers and public health officials.

3. National estimates of substance-related ED ―DAWN captures detailed substance data with more specificity compared to traditional methods. This section will provide an overview of national drug-related ED estimates and types of surveillance findings available for public health.

4. Innovative surveillance analytic methods ― Drug surveillance is continuously evolving with increased need for flexible systems to monitor emerging trends. This section will summarize DAWN’s utilization of unstructured text data and applications of natural language processing.