SOONER Feasibility Study Protocol

Deaths from opioid overdose represent an important and expanding global public health epidemic. Opioid Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution programs (OEND) involve training and equipping people who are likely to witness overdose to recognize these emergencies and administer essential first aid interventions including naloxone, a widely known and effective competitive opioid antagonist. Policymakers and practitioners have called for expanded access to OEND programs in clinical settings such as emergency departments, family practice, and addiction medicine clinics, or "point-of-care OEND". Point-of-care OEND would improve access to this potentially life-saving intervention. Simple and effective point-of-care OEND tools are a prerequisite for the successful translation of this intervention into general ambulatory settings, including family practice, addiction medicine and psychiatry clinics, and emergency departments. The investigators plan to conduct a randomized trial to evaluate the educational effectiveness of a novel point-of-care OEND kit in a simulated opioid overdose, in comparison with existing community- and hospital-based OEND programs.

Conducting trials among people who use drugs or who are likely to witness overdose involves several well-documented scientific, logistical, and bioethical challenges. These challenges contribute to the persistent under-evaluation of interventions to enhance the health of this marginalized population, and threats to study validity when retention rates are low.

Recruitment, retention and attrition rates could alter the study timelines, logistics and costs for the proposed trial. A feasibility study is needed to evaluate and refine an integrated participant recruitment and retention strategy, develop expected retention rates, establish the local acceptability of study procedures in recruitment sites, and reconsider study design and analysis if required. A feasibility study will also permit the evaluation of basic randomization and data collection procedures.

The primary objective of this feasibility study is to identify if an integrated participant recruitment and retention strategy can recruit approximately 28 eligible participants within 4 weeks and maintain less than 50% attrition in the context of a randomized trial on point-of-care OEND and simulated overdose resuscitation performance in family practice, emergency department, and addiction medicine settings at St. Michael's Hospital, and in family practice at the Inner City Family Health Team.

Participants are eligible by meeting any one or more of the following:

• Have a history of taking opioids at recognized 'high doses' (whether by prescription or otherwise, defined as >100mg morphine equivalent per day).
• Live with or is in frequent contact with others who use opioids or heroin.
• Have required emergency care for opioid overdose previously.
• Are enrolled in opioid agonist treatment programs (or has been in the last 6 months), including methadone or buprenorphine maintenance programs, particularly at high risk periods such as induction or discharge.
• Are being released from prison, and have a history of non-medical opioid use.
• Are receiving prescription opioid therapy with risk factors for adverse effects, including relevant comorbidities, co-prescriptions of benzodiazepines or other sedatives, concomitant ongoing alcohol use, or high dose prescription opioid therapy.
• Uses non-medical opioids, injects opioids, or acquires opioids from sources other than a pharmacy or healthcare setting.

Exclusion criteria

Participants are ineligible by meeting any one or more of the following:

• Have a community do not resuscitate order.
• Have a terminal illness, end-of-life care, or illness likely to result in death within the study period.
• Have no mode of contact or follow-up.
• Plan to move away from Toronto during the study period.
• Have insufficient English language skills to participate in the study.
• Are an active or previously practicing healthcare professional or professional first responder (e.g.: firefighter, police officer, lifeguard, industrial first responder).