Research Determination

Project Determination
State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS)
Continuation 1
Project ID:

0900f3eb825e807c

Accession #:

NCIPC-ESB-10/28/19-50ea3

Project Contact:

Julie Odonnell

Organization:

NCIPC/OD/OS

Status:

Pending Clearance : Continuation

Intended Use:

Project Determination

Estimated Start Date:

09/01/19

Estimated Completion Date:

08/31/22

CDC/ATSDR HRPO/IRB Protocol#:

N/A

OMB Control#:

0920-1128

End of Human Research Date:
OMB Discontinuation Date:

Description
Priority
Standard

CDC Priority Area for this Project
Improving mental health and combatting the overdose crisis

Determination Start Date
09/23/25

Description

SUDORS assists with ongoing surveillance of fatal unintentional and undetermined intent drug-related overdoses to support prevention and response efforts.
Specifically, participating health departments must abstract medical examiner and/or coroner (ME/C) data and death certificate (DC) data on CDC required data
elements into SUDORS.

IMS/CIO/Epi-Aid/Lab-Aid/Chemical Exposure Submission
No

IMS Activation Name
Not selected

Submitted through IMS clearance matrix
Not selected

Primary Scientific Priority
Not selected

Secondary Scientific Priority (s)
Not selected

Task Force Responsible
Not selected

CIO Emergency Response Name
Not selected

Epi-Aid Name
Not selected

Lab-Aid Name
Not selected

Assessment of Chemical Exposure Name
Not selected

Goals/Purpose
The purpose of SUDORS is to generate public health surveillance information on unintentional and undetermined intent drug overdose deaths across multiple
states, within a state, and within local communities. These data support states and local communities to better select and target intervention strategies that
address the risk factors driving fatal drug-related overdoses in their community.

Objective
In response to the growing severity of the opioid overdose epidemic, the US government declared the opioid overdose epidemic a public health emergency on
October 26, 2017, joining at least eight states that have declared the opioid epidemic a statewide emergency. In March 2025, the public health emergency
declaration was renewed, and in April 2025, the Administration released a Statement of Drug Policy Priorities outlining 6 top priorities: 1) Reduce the number of
overdose fatalities, with a focus on fentanyl; 2) Secure global supply chain against drug trafficking; 3) Stop the flow of drugs across our border and into our

communities; 4) Prevent drug use before it starts; 5) Provide treatment that leads to long-term recovery; and 6) Innovate in research and data to support drug
control strategies. SUDORS is a critical element the 6th priority to innovate in research and data, and data from SUDORS can be used to help inform efforts for the
1st priority to reduce overdose deaths.

Does your project measure health disparities among populations/groups experiencing social, economic, geographic, and/or
environmental disadvantages?
No

Does your project investigate underlying contributors to health inequities among populations/groups experiencing social,
economic, geographic, and/or environmental disadvantages?
No

Does your project propose, implement, or evaluate an action to move towards eliminating health inequities?
No

Activities or Tasks
Purchase, Use, or Transfer of Information, Data, Biospecimens or Materials

Target Population to be Included/Represented
Other-Individuals who died of an unintentional or undetermined intent drug overdose

Tags/Keywords
Drug Overdose; opioid; overdose

CDC's Role
Activity originated and designed by CDC staff, or conducted at the specific request of CDC, or CDC staff will approve study design and data collection as a condition
of any funding provided; CDC is providing funding

Method Categories
Surveillance Support; Technical Assistance

Methods
State public health departments will be funded to abstract standardized data elements from medical examiner/coroner (ME/C) reports as well as death certificates
on unintentional and undetermined intent drug overdose deaths in their state into a CDC web-based platform.

Collection of Info, Data, or Bio specimens
Data entry is accomplished by the 50 participating health department offices via a secure CDC-owned web-based platform. Data are continuously transmitted via
the web to a secure CDC-based server.

Expected Use of Findings/Results and their impact
The purpose of SUDORS is to generate public health surveillance information on unintentional and undetermined intent drug overdose deaths across multiple
states, within a state, and within local communities. These data support states and local communities to better select and tailor intervention strategies that address
the risk factors driving fatal drug overdoses in their community.

Could Individuals potentially be identified based on Information Collected?
No

Funding
Funding Type

Funding Title

Funding #

Original Fiscal
Year

# of Years
of Award

CDC Cooperative

Overdose Data to Action in States (OD2A-S)

CE-23-0002

2023

5

Budget
Amount

Agreement

HSC Review
Regulation and Policy
Do you anticipate this project will require review by a CDC IRB or HRPO?
No

Will you be working with an outside Organization or Institution? No

Institutions
Institution
Institution

Institution

Institution
Institution

FWA #

FWA Exp. Date

Funding

Funding Restriction Percentage

Institution Role(s)

Registered IRB

Funding Restriction Reason

Institution Project Title

Regulatory Coverage

Funding Restriction Amount

Institution Project
Tracking #

Funding Restriction has been
lifted
Prime Institution

IRB Review Status
IRB Registration Exp. Date

IRB Approval Status

Institution

IRB Approval Date

IRB Approval Exp. Date

Relying Institution IRB

Staff
Staff
Member

SIQT Exp.
Date

CalliTaylor

12/31/2099

Citi
Biomedical
Exp. Date

Citi Social
and
Behavioral
Exp. Date

Citi Good
Clinical
Exp. Date

Citi Good
Laboratory
Practice
Exp. Date

Staff Role

Email

Phone #

Organizatio
n/
Institution

Project Officer

nqz9@cdc.

404-718-3355

MORTALITY

gov
ChristineMattso

05/22/2026

01/08/2028

Program Lead

n
JessicaBitting

ggi8@cdc.

TEAM
404-639-8572

gov
n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

Project Officer

MORTALITY
TEAM

qdn6@cdc
.gov

JulieOdonnell

12/20/2026

12/17/2021

Project Officer

irh8@cdc.

404-498-5005

gov
MatthewGladde

02/16/2026

10/18/2021

n

Technical

gkv7@cdc.

Monitor

gov

MORTALITY
TEAM

770-488-4276

EPIDEMIOLOG
Y AND
SURVEILLANC
E BRANCH

MbabaziKariisa

08/04/2026

06/23/2019

12/04/2021

Project Officer

lie6@cdc.g

404-498-1560

ov
NanaWilson

06/26/2026

03/07/2028

11/03/2023

06/21/2016

Project Officer

wie4@cdc.

TEAM
404-498-1821

gov
NicoleDavis

07/07/2026

07/29/2023

Program Lead

dwg4@cdc
.gov

PriyamPatel

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

Project Officer

qkn6@cdc
.gov

StephanieSnod

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

grass

Project Officer

pqw4@cdc
.gov

DMP
Proposed Data Collection Start Date

n/a

09/01/19

MORTALITY
MORTALITY
TEAM

770-488-6385

MORTALITY
TEAM

Proposed Data Collection End Date

09/01/28

Proposed Public Access Level

Public

Public Access justification

Data on drug overdose deaths will be released to the public in only aggregate form through a webbased query system as well as publications and reports. Individual case-level data will not be shared
at this time. This is consistent with the data sharing agreement governing the collection of data in
the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS) and described in the Overdose
Data to Action in States (OD2A-S) Notice of Award (NOFO). The aggregate format delineated in the
OD2A-S data sharing agreement for SUDORS was needed to facilitate rapid and widespread
participation in SUDORS by OD2A-S recipients. Rapid scale-up and widespread participation in
SUDORS is needed to inform expanded efforts to reduce the public health burden of the opioid
overdose public health emergency. Existing local data sharing agreements between some health
departments and their local medical examiners and coroners coupled with the rapid collection of
SUDORS data may have prevented some health departments from participating in SUDORS if deidentified case-level data sharing and public reporting were required.

During the five years that

OD2A-S is funded, NCIPC staff and leadership will explore expanding the release of SUDORS data,
including feasibility of using a restricted access dataset to release state-level data not released in
the dashboard.

Funded recipients are required to disseminate SUDORS data via two or more

products starting in Year 2 of OD2A-S (e.g., data dashboards, web pages, peer-reviewed
manuscripts), and submit an annual listing of products to CDC.

How Access Will Be Provided for Data

The Epidemiology and Surveillance Branch, where the CDC Overdose Mortality Team who oversees
SUDORS resides, has created an interactive public-facing data dashboard to share key data
including: 1) classes and specific drugs detected and/or contributing to drug overdose deaths (e.g.,
opioid pain relievers, oxycodone, illegal opioids, illegally-manufactured fentanyl, and heroin), 2)
circumstances associated with overdose death (e.g., recently released from an institution such as
prison, previous drug overdoses, or decedent treated for substance use disorder at time of death),
3) route that drugs involved in the fatal overdose were used (e.g., injection, snorting or smoking),
and 4) response to the overdose (e.g., opioid overdose reversal medications administered, died
when bystander was present, or had heart rate when emergency medical services arrived). These
fields can be queried in aggregate or by recipient, and by year. CDC has publicly released a CDCcleared copy of the coding manual to facilitate understanding of the SUDORS data. The dashboard:
1) meets CDC security and data standards by obtaining a CDC authority to operate, 2) provides
public viewer the ability to easily export aggregate data produced by custom queries, and 3)
supplies metadata (e.g., definitions of key variables) to the public in a user-friendly fashion. In
order to ensure that personally identifying information is not collected by SUDORS, the data

collection has been reviewed by the privacy office as part of the required review of the NVDRS web
system which SUDORS uses to collect data. The NVDRS web system has received authorization to
operate, is hosted by CDC and uses CDC Secure Access Management System (SAMS) to
authenticate external users. This ensures the SUDORS database meets government data standards
including security and redundancy. The de-identified data collected by SUDORS, however, is
sensitive and could potentially be used to identify individual decedents. Access to data exported
from SUDORS by CDC is restricted to CDC users who need to use the data to provide technical
assistance to local health departments, run analyses, or perform data quality checks.

Plans for archival and long-term preservation of

As part of its authority to operate, the NVDRS web system has a plan to permanently store all data

the data

entered into the system. In addition, CDC SUDORS staff will download all case-level data at least
every six months and these downloads will be permanently retained and stored in secure folders on
a CDC share drive.

Spatiality (Geographic Location)
Country

State/Province

United States

Wyoming

United States

Texas

United States

South Dakota

United States

Wisconsin

United States

West Virginia

United States

Washington

United States

Virginia

United States

Vermont

United States

Utah

United States

Tennessee

United States

South Carolina

United States

Rhode Island

United States

Pennsylvania

United States

Oregon

United States

Oklahoma

United States

Ohio

United States

North Carolina

United States

New York

United States

New Mexico

United States

New Jersey

United States

New Hampshire

United States

Nevada

United States

Nebraska

United States

Montana

United States

Missouri

United States

Mississippi

United States

Minnesota

United States

Michigan

United States

Massachusetts

United States

Maryland

United States

Maine

County/Region

United States

Louisiana

United States

Kentucky

United States

Kansas

United States

Iowa

United States

Indiana

United States

Illinois

United States

Idaho

United States

Hawaii

United States

Georgia

United States

Florida

United States

Delaware

United States

Connecticut

United States

Colorado

United States

California

United States

Arkansas

United States

Arizona

United States

Alaska

United States

Alabama

United States

Washington, D.C.

Determinations
Determination

Justification

Completed

Entered By & Role

HSC:

Not Research - Public Health Surveillance

09/29/25

Halstead_Mary (ygg9) CIO HSC

09/30/25

Halstead_Mary (ygg9) OMB / PRA

06/02/21

Zirger_Jeffrey (wtj5) ICRO Reviewer

Does NOT Require HRPO
Review

45 CFR 46.102(l)(2)

PRA:
PRA Applies
ICRO:

OMB Approval date: 01/21/20

PRA Applies

OMB Expiration date: 01/31/23