Public health staff in Ontario are being encouraged to use an automated system to monitor opioid news events using AI (artificial intelligence). Public Health Ontario, through PHO Rounds, will be providing a webinar and learning demonstration on the new project.
The project is called the Automated Opioid News Event-based Surveillance (AONES) Tool and will be presented in a live online format for health care professionals on Oct. 1. It was first introduced by Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Public Health.
The drug-poisoning crisis in Ontario has worsened dramatically since the introduction of fentanyl in 2016 and was only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, said an advisory posted on the PHO website that said "A.I. Technologies in Public Health Part 1: Launching the Automated Opioid News Event-based Surveillance (AONES) Tool".
Surveillance methods are still limited in their ability to detect this ever-evolving crisis, especially novel contamination events, the advisory states.
The webinar event is being directed at public health nurses and physicians, epidemiologists and data scientists, and health unit staff working in harm reduction.
The Automated Opioid News Event-based Surveillance system (AONES) is a tool that operates in near real-time, using artificial intelligence (A.I.) to identify news articles related to opioids and extract data related to the unregulated drug supply.
Presenters at the webinar will be Allison Maier, an MPH from Queen’s University, and Nancy Slipp. a PhD in Environmental Chemistry from the University of Toronto. Both have more than 10 years experience working in public health surveillance, said the advisory.
