Data Sources and Data-Linking Strategies to Support Research to Address the Opioid Crisis

This report presents findings from a scoping study to assess the types of data sources and data-linkage efforts that are currently being used or could potentially be leveraged to support research and evaluations relevant to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Strategic Priorities to combat the opioids crisis. Based on an environmental scan of the literature and interviews with opioid policy and research efforts, the purpose of the project is to provide an overview of the types of secondary data sources and data linkages commonly used in opioid-related research to highlight some of the key gaps or challenges for existing data-collection and analysis efforts and to outline potential steps that could be taken to overcome these challenges. The initial scoping study was conducted in summer 2017, with an update to the scan of the literature conducted in February 2018.