ArticleCMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne2022
Clinical outcomes and health care costs among people entering a safer opioid supply program in Ontario.
Article in CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 73 citations in OpenAlex.
- Safer opioid supply clients' values and preferences: a systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative research.BMJ mental health · 2025Pooled it
- "Anybody who Looks at This Program and Doesn't See the Positive Side from it Doesn't Fully Understand": Participant Perspectives on an Injectable Opioid Agonist Treatment Program in New Brunswick, Canada.Contemporary drug problems · 2026Article
- Safer supply deprescribing during a toxic drug poisoning crisis in Vancouver, Canada.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Article
- Prescribed pharmaceutical alternatives initiative coinciding with reductions in unregulated street opioid use among young people who use drugs: An interrupted time series analysis.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Article
- "Safer supply is the thing that changes everything": the role of prescribed safer supply in rebuilding trust following experiences of medical abandonment.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Participant perspectives on a safe supply program in Vancouver, Canada: impacts, satisfaction and improvement priorities.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- A continuum of disconnection: the impacts of safer supply program closures on continuity of care, transition, and total loss of service access.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Safe Supply at Insite, North America's First Supervised Consumption Site: A Case Report of Reduced Harms From the Toxic Drug Supply in a Client Prescribed Powdered Fentanyl Alternative.Drug and alcohol review · 2026Article
- Attitudes to Drug Policy in Australia, 2001-2022/23: What Does This Mean for Drug Policy Reform in Australia?Drug and alcohol review · 2026Article
- "With this you're not chained down to something": contrasting experiences of opioid agonist treatment and safer supply program participation among people receiving prescribed safer supply.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
- Perspectives on prescribed safer supply programs among people who inject drugs in Baltimore, Maryland: A mixed methods study among individuals highly affected by drug toxicity.The International journal on drug policy · 2025Article
- A sea of need: provider accounts of strategies used to manage admission demands to safer opioid supply programs in Ontario.Harm reduction journal · 2025Article
- Mapping the overdose crisis in Ontario: geographic disparities in opioid-related harms and services.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Clinicians' Perspectives and an Ethical Analysis of Safer Supply Opioid Prescribing.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2025Article
- "From an HCV and HIV point of view, it's been remarkable": A qualitative study about using prescribed safer supply to support people who use drugs along the HIV and HCV prevention and treatment cascades in Ontario, Canada.Journal of the International AIDS Society · 2025Article
- Harm reduction, treatment, and prevention-essential pillars to Canada's response to the drug poisoning crisis.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2025Article
- Navigating US illicit drug market volatility: harm reduction strategies employed by people who inject drugs.Health promotion international · 2025Article
- Comprehensive substance use services within primary care settings: The Safer Opioid Supply program at London InterCommunity Health Centre.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2025Article
- Safer Opioid Supply programs: Hydromorphone prescribing in Ontario as a harm reduction intervention to combat the drug poisoning crisis.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2025Article
- Opioid medication doses among safer supply clients: Current safer supply doses and previous OAT experience.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLondon InterCommunity Health Centre (LIHC) launched a safer opioid supply (SOS) program in 2016, where clients are prescribed pharmaceutical opioids and provided with comprehensive health and social supports. We sought to evaluate the impact of this program on health services utilization and health care costs.
methodsWe conducted an interrupted time series analysis of London, Ontario, residents who received a diagnosis of opioid use disorder (OUD) and who entered the SOS program between January 2016 and March 2019, and a comparison group of individuals matched on demographic and clinical characteristics who were not exposed to the program. Primary outcomes were emergency department (ED) visits, hospital admissions, admissions for infections and health care costs. We used autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models to evaluate the impact of SOS initiation and compared outcome rates in the year before and after cohort entry.
resultsIn the time series analysis, rates of ED visits (-14 visits/100, 95% confidence interval [CI] -26 to -2;
interpretationAlthough additional research is needed, this preliminary evidence indicates that SOS programs can play an important role in the expansion of treatment and harm-reduction options available to assist people who use drugs and who are at high risk of drug poisoning.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.