Opioid Crisis Task Force

Opioids are natural or synthetic chemicals that interact with nerve cell receptors in the body and brain that reduce the intensity of pain signals. They can consist of illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and prescription pain medications such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine and morphine. From 2000 to 2017, the rate of overdose deaths involving opioid related drugs increased roughly 200% in the Unites States.  As a result of this development, the American Medical Association (AMA) recognized a necessary need for physicians and other health care professionals to take action and combat the opioid epidemic that currently plagues the nation. As shown in table 1, the AMA encourages physicians and health care professionals to undertake six vital actions that will help reverse the current opioid epidemic. To assist with the opioid crisis task force, HORIBA Medical assembled key solutions ranging from automated drug screening to drug confirmation testing by LC/MS. HORIBA Medical provides a line of high quality and economical automated toxicology analyzers, along with a comprehensive line of open channel drugs of abuse reagents, which can be placed on any clinical chemistry analyzer. Furthermore, HORIBA Medical provides convenient and reliable solutions for laboratories that are implementing or performing in-house LC/MS drug confirmation testing.