{Reference Type}: Journal Article
{Title}: 'You mean you're not doing it already?' A national sentinel toxico-surveillance system for detecting illicit, emerging and novel psychoactive drugs in presentations to emergency departments.
{Author}: Fatovich DM;Dessauer P;Ezard N; ;
{Journal}: Emerg Med Australas
{Volume}: 0
{Issue}: 0
{Year}: 2024 Aug 1
{Factor}: 2.279
{DOI}: 10.1111/1742-6723.14478
{Abstract}: Patients presenting to the ED after using illicit drugs, including novel psychoactive substances, are a unique source of information on substances that are directly causing acute harm in the community. Conventionally, illicit drug intoxications are assessed and managed in EDs based on self-report and presenting symptoms, with no objective data on the causative agent. The Emerging Drugs Network of Australia (EDNA) is a national toxico-surveillance system that provides analytic data on these drugs, from sentinel Emergency Departments. It is a collaborative national network of emergency physicians, toxicologists, forensic laboratories and public health authorities. The key benefit of EDNA is the capacity to provide timely laboratory-confirmed toxicology data on emerging drug-related threats in the community. This leads to improvements in clinical, forensic laboratory and public health harm reduction responses, reflecting rapid translation of the research.