Ontario Opioid Indicator Tool - Technical Appendix Contents What’s New in the March 2023 Update 2

However, since the ODPRN’s initial launch of this tool in 2018, the landscape of the overdose crisis in Ontario has shifted, with an increasing recognition that the majority of opioid-related harms have been associated with the unregulated opioid supply, which is predominantly made up of fentanyl. [...] To better meet the needs of the current crisis, the tool was updated in August 2022 with new indicators that focus less on the dispensing of opioids for pain, and more on opioids used for the treatment of opioid use disorder, as well as complications arising from opioid-related harms. [...] We used data from the NMS to present trends in the number and rate of people dispensed opioid prescriptions, the number and rate of people receiving high daily dose opioid prescriptions, the volume of opioid prescriptions dispensed, the number and rate of people with opioid agonist therapy (OAT) use, and the number and rate of prescribers for OAT. [...] Data on the provision of community-provided naloxone doses (provided through the Ontario Naloxone Program); straight stems, foils, bowl pipes, and paper straws (provided by the Ontario Harm Reduction Distribution Program); and needles (provided by the Needle Exchange Program) were obtained from the Ontario Ministry of Health. [...] We then use the following formula to calculate the fentanyl dose in milligrams of morphine equivalents: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? = ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ∗ ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ℎ ? ? ? ? ? ? ∗ ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Once the total dose of the dispensed opioid prescription is calculated, the average daily dose (i.e., the amount of t.