[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 207 (Friday, October 25, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57437-57438]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-23367]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

[30Day-20-1128]


Agency Forms Undergoing Paperwork Reduction Act Review

    In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has submitted the information 
collection request titled ``State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting 
System (SUDORS)'' to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for 
review and approval. CDC previously published a ``Proposed Data 
Collection Submitted for Public Comment and Recommendations'' notice on 
April 2, 2019 to obtain comments from the public and affected agencies. 
CDC did not receive comments related to the previous notice. This 
notice serves to allow an additional 30 days for public and affected 
agency comments.
    CDC will accept all comments for this proposed information 
collection project. The Office of Management and Budget is particularly 
interested in comments that:
    (a) Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
    (b) Evaluate the accuracy of the agencies estimate of the burden of 
the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used;
    (c) Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected;
    (d) Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including, through the use of appropriate 
automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection 
techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting 
electronic submission of responses; and
    (e) Assess information collection costs.
    To request additional information on the proposed project or to 
obtain a copy of the information collection plan and instruments, call 
(404) 639-7570 or send an email to [email protected]. Direct written comments 
and/or suggestions regarding the items contained in this notice to the 
Attention: CDC Desk Officer, Office of Management and Budget, 725 17th 
Street NW, Washington, DC 20503 or by fax to (202) 395-5806. Provide 
written comments within 30 days of notice publication.

Proposed Project

    State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS) (OMB 
Control No. 0920-1128, Exp. 10/31/2020)--Revision--National Center for 
Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention (CDC).

Background and Brief Description

    There has been a rapid increase in opioid overdose deaths since 
2013. In the United States, more people are now dying of drug overdose 
than automobile crashes, although opioids--both opioid pain relievers 
(OPRs) and illicit forms such as heroin--are also a major factor in 
overdose-related automobile crashes. On October 26, 2017, the U.S. 
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) declared the opioid 
overdose epidemic to be a national public health emergency.
    CDC established the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting 
System (SUDORS) in order to detect new trends in fatal unintentional 
drug overdoses, support targeting of drug overdose prevention efforts, 
and assess the progress of the HHS initiative to reduce opioid misuse 
and overdoses. Respondents are state- or jurisdiction-level health 
departments. The SUDORS surveillance system generates detailed, timely 
public health information on unintentional, fatal opioid-related drug 
overdoses and has been used to inform prevention and response efforts 
at the national, state, and local levels. SUDORS consolidates and 
supplements information available to health departments, including 
vital statistics and records created by medical examiners and coroners 
(ME/C). SUDORS is built on a web-based software platform and a 
collaborative surveillance and data integration model developed by CDC 
and health departments to improve understanding of homicide, suicide, 
undetermined deaths, and unintentional firearm deaths (National Violent 
Death Reporting System (NVDRS), OMB No. 0920-0607, exp. 11/30/2020).
    Through SUDORS, CDC currently collects information that is not 
provided on death certificates, such as whether the drug(s) causing the 
overdoses were injected or taken orally; a toxicology report on the 
decedent, if available; and risk factors for fatal drug overdoses 
including previous drug overdoses, decedent's mental health, and 
whether the decedent recently exited a treatment program. Without this 
information, efforts to prevent drug overdose deaths are often based on 
limited information available on the death certificate and anecdotal 
evidence.
    During the next three years, CDC will update the web-based SUDORS 
interface to improve system performance, functionality, and 
accessibility. CDC and health

[[Page 57438]]

departments will also expand the SUDORS case definition beyond the 
current focus on opioid-related overdose deaths to include all 
individuals who died of an unintentional or undetermined intent drug-
related overdose. The expanded focus will allow CDC and health 
departments to begin characterizing overdose deaths attributable to 
emerging illicit drug threats (e.g., non-opioid synthetic drugs), 
deaths attributable to opioid co-use with other classes of drugs (e.g., 
gabapentin or benzodiazapine), and the extent to which certain types of 
prescription drugs (both opioid and non-opioid) are involved in fatal 
overdoses.
    Participating states and jurisdictions will continue to report 
SUDORS information to CDC through a module in the NVDRS web-based 
platform. State- and jurisdiction-level public health departments will 
be funded to abstract standardized data elements from ME/C reports as 
well as death certificates. Beginning in 2020, cooperative agreement 
goals include reducing the time lag for reporting from eight months to 
no more than six months. Information can be entered into the SUDORS 
system at any time, but reports on overdose deaths that occur between 
January 1 and June 30 will be entered into the SUDORS by December of 
the same calendar year. Data entry for overdose deaths that occur 
between July 1 and December 31 will be complete by June of the next 
calendar year. The accelerated reporting schedule is needed to support 
timely identification of the causes of overdose deaths, and effective 
public health intervention.
    This Revision request does not entail a change in the estimated 
burden per response, which is based on the time needed for a health 
department to retrieve and refile vital statistics records, ME/C 
records, etc. The estimated burden per response does not include the 
time needed to abstract SUDORS data variables from those sources, since 
this activity is funded by the SUDORS cooperative agreement. Total 
estimated annualized burden will increase due to the inclusion of 
additional types of overdose-related deaths. Also, increased 
Congressional appropriation in 2019 to expand SUDORS nationwide as a 
component of CDC's Overdose Data to Action (OD2A) Notice of Funding 
Opportunity (NOFO) (CDC-RFA-CE19-1904, posted February 1, 2019) 
requires expanding the number of participating jurisdictions from 50 to 
52. OMB approval is requested for three years. The total estimated 
annualized burden hours are 32,838.

                                        Estimated Annualized Burden Hours
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                                                                                   Total number   Average burden
         Type of respondent                   Form name              Number of     of responses    per response
                                                                    respondents   per respondent    (in hours)
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Public Agencies....................  Retrieving and refiling                  52           1,263           30/60
                                      records.
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Jeffrey M. Zirger,
Lead, Information Collection Review Office, Office of Scientific 
Integrity, Office of Science, Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention.
[FR Doc. 2019-23367 Filed 10-24-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4163-19-P