State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS)

SUDORS is an enhanced public health surveillance reporting system that aims to collect comprehensive information including the circumstances surrounding the overdose death to inform public health action.

Case Inclusion Criteria

  • Cause of death: Drug poisoning/overdose deaths that occurred in New York State
  • Manner of death: Unintentional/accidental or undetermined
  • Location of death: Occurrent (within the jurisdiction), regardless of residence of decedent and location of injury (overdose).

A complete SUDORS case report includes information from:

  • Death certificate
  • Toxicology report
  • Forensic or coroner/medical examiner report

Strengths

  • Every case is manually review by trained abstractors and information is abstracted based on an official Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Coding Manual, which is followed by all participating jurisdictions.
  • Data is reviewed by CDC’s mortality officers, with a two-part quality assurance/quality control check every six months.
  • System is required to have number of deaths consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (within 95% of CDC WONDER).
  • Reporting system is designed and requires the collection of multiple data sources.
  • Final datasets are available every six months.

Limitations

  • Completeness of data is contingent upon the time needed for vital records and death certificate processing.
  • Some counties do not provide their coroner/medical examiner or toxicology reports.
  • Coroner/Medical Examiner reports may vary in quality and richness.
  • Training, experience, and expertise vary among coroners.
  • Toxicology testing practices may vary across the state. 

For more information

Drug Overdose Report Submission Reimbursement Program

The Drug Overdose Report Submission Reimbursement Program was developed to support counties, and specifically, coroner and medical examiner offices, as they play an important role in providing data and reports on fatal drug overdoses occurring throughout the state while facing increasing costs.

Due to the increasing volume and complexity of drug overdose cases, it is imperative that accurate, timely, data and reports must be completed and submitted to the AIDS Institute’s Office of Drug User Health’s Drug Overdose Surveillance and Epidemiology Unit to develop an evidence-based state and local-level response to the drug overdose epidemic.

The State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS), a program that collects data on all fatal overdoses occurring in the state, contacts coroner and medical examiner offices throughout the year to request autopsy, forensic, and toxicology reports. If reports are received in a prompt manner, a reimbursement will be provided based on the number of reports received. Reimbursements are anticipated to occur on a quarterly basis and are supported by both federal and state funds. This program is anticipated to remain in place until, at minimum, August 2028.