Measuring What Matters: How the Laboratory Contributes Value in the Opioid Crisis

Abstract

Over the past 2 decades, the United States (US) has experienced an escalation of the opioid crisis. In 2018 alone, 10.3 million Americans misused prescription opioids and 47 600 died from opioidrelated overdoses (1). To date, the rate of deaths associated with opioid overdoses now ranks amongst the top causes of death in the US, exceeding that of motor vehicle accidents (1). Behind these headlines, however, the impact of this crisis has been far-reaching with clinical, economic, community, and societal implications.