Medical Examiner Toxicology Data Collection

Medical Examiner/Toxicology Data Collection Items

Draft

Definition

In the NFLIS ME/C data collection, a drug-involved death case is one in which the medical examiner or coroner requests toxicology analyses as a part of the death investigation and identification of a drug is confirmed. Thus, the primary data of interest is: identifying drugs present at time of death, as well as drugs identified as the cause of death or a contributing cause of death as determined by the medical examiner or corner.

Medical Examiner and Coroner Office Core Data Items

Primary data collection items (required core data set)

• Case ID/Unique Identifier

• Date of death

• Date of death record

• Examination completion date: this is the completion date of full autopsy, partial autopsy, or external exam

• Type of examination: full autopsy, partial autopsy, external exam

• Cause of death: include primary cause of death and contributing factors

• Manner of death: suicide, accident, homicide, natural, undetermined

• Location of death (county, city, and ZIP code)

• Age of Decedent

• Sex of Decedent

• Race/Ethnicity of Decedent

• Submitting agency

Secondary data collection items (data elements as available)

• Case history

  1. History of drug use, types of drugs reported in the history of use

• Known legitimate drug prescriptions of deceased

• Type of toxicology analysis requested (general screen, confirmation, synthetic cannabinoid panel etc.)

Toxicology Laboratory Data Items

Primary data collection items (required core data set)

• Case ID/Unique Identifier: if different from ME/C case ID/unique identifier

• Requesting agency name

• Date of analysis

• Drug(s) identified: this should include a list of individual drugs (alprazolam) and metabolites (alpha-hydroxy alprazolam), that have been confirmed in the body of the deceased even if that drug is not implicated in death.

• Identify whether samples were submitted to a reference laboratory for additional testing.

Secondary data collection items (data elements as available)

• If available provide confirmation result (concentration with units (e.g., concentrations established in ng/mL)).

• Identify matrices (i.e., peripheral blood, cardiac blood) along with the above confirmation data.

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