What drug or drug combinations send people to the emergency department?

Challenge

The opioid crisis is still a public health emergency. The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) was a nationwide surveillance system that improved emergency department monitoring of substance-related visits. This network strengthened public health reporting and provided data on drug-related healthcare burden.

Solution

For the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Westat:

• Designed the surveillance and anomaly detection system
• Developed the data abstraction infrastructure
• Facilitated hospital onboarding and participation
• Managed 24/7 abstraction operations
• Launched a dissemination platform to inform the public health response
• Analyzed and produced publicly available reports highlighting DAWN’s unique data

DAWN IT infrastructure, entirely hosted within SAMHSA’s cloud, captured, evaluated, and visualized data for project stakeholders. DAWN systems used modern open-source technologies, employed automation (machine learning [ML], natural language processing [NLP], and analytic models), and were scalable.

Results

DAWN provided timely identification of drugs and combinations of drugs involved in emergency department visits, as well as the necessary information related to these visits that communities can use to target and deploy interventions. DAWN participant hospitals had access to their own data and used that data to improve the identification of trends in substance use disorder, strengthened their ability to respond to drug-related health problems, including overdose, enhance readiness for treatment, assess all kinds of substance-related ED visits, including alcohol, and facilitate the connection of patients to the care and treatment they need.

Learn about the findings

• Short Report Drug-Related ED Visits Involving Suicide Attempts: Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) Short Report | Drug-related ED visits involving suicide attempts (PDF)
• Short Report Alcohol-Related ED Visits: Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) Short Report | Alcohol-related ED visits (PDF)
• Short Report Opioid-Involved ED Visits in the United States: Trends in Opioid-Involved Emergency Department Visits: Overall and by Type of Opioid, 2021–2024 (PDF)
• Short Report National Estimates of Polysubstance Involved Emergency Department Visits: Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN): National Estimates of Polysubstance Involved Emergency Department Visits | CBHSQ Data
• Network Watch Quarter 2 2025: DAWN Network Watch – Quarter 2 2025 Release (PDF)
• Network Watch Quarter 1 2025: DAWN Network Watch – Quarter 1 2025 Release (PDF)
• Network Watch January 2023-August 2024: Network Watch (PDF)
• 2024 DAWN National Annual Estimates: Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN): National Estimates From Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits, 2024 (PDF)
• 2023 DAWN Annual Estimates: Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN): Findings from Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits, 2023 (PDF)
• 2022 DAWN Annual Estimates: Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN): Findings from Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits, 2022 (PDF)
• Short Report | Non-Fatal Overdoses (PDF)
• Non-Fatal Overdoses Short Report | Companion Document (PDF)
• Press releases: 2021 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) Releases
• Report: Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN): Findings From Drug-Related Emergency Department Visits, 2021