PREDOSE
Introduction
The non-medical use of pharmaceutical opioids has been identified as one of the fastest growing forms of drug abuse in the U.S. Furthermore, significant increases in the illicit use of pharmaceutical opioids have expanded the pathways to heroin addiction and resulted in escalating rates of accidental overdose deaths. To design effective and responsive prevention and policy measures, public health professionals require timely and reliable information on new and emerging drug trends. Although existing epidemiological data systems provide critically important information about drug abuse trends, they are often time-lagged. There is therefore a need for epidemiological sources that could complement existing drug trend monitoring systems and enhance their capacity for early identification of new and emerging trends. The World Wide Web (Web) has been identified as one of the leading data sources for detecting patterns and changes in the non-medical use of pharmaceutical and other illicit drugs. Many Web 2.0 empowered social platforms, including Web forums, provide venues for individuals to freely share their experiences, post questions, and offer comments about different drugs.
This project aims to address this critical need for relevant and timely information by pursuing two(2) specific goals:
| Goals |
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| Project Team |
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Principal Investigators: Raminta Daniulaityte, Amit P. Sheth |
| Project Description |
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This research project aims to develop a mechanism to automate 'qualitative coding' in social research by automatically extracting triples from web data, particularly web forum posts. The goal of such triple extraction is to provide a framework that can be exploited to study user knowledge, attitudes and behaviors as it relates to non-medical use of pharmaceutical opiods (e.g. OxyContin, buprenorphine etc). Interesting areas include 1) Social Network analysis, intended to determine information diffusion patterns and 2) Spatial-Temporal-Thematic analysis, intended to determine trends within the community regarding usage, distribution, of method of administration of pharmaceutical opioids (including Suboxone and Subutex, which are buprenorphine products). |
| Architecture and Research Plan |
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N/A |
Funding
This project is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grant Award No. R21 DA030571-01A1 to the Ohio Center for Excellence in Knowledge-enabled Computing (Kno.e.sis) and the Center for Treatment, Interventions and Addictions Research (CITAR) titled “A Study of Social Web Data on Buprenorphine Abuse using Semantic Web Technology.” Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the investigator(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Institutes of Health.
Contact: Delroy Cameron
