Co-design of the Australian Prompt Response Network for a public-health focused intersectoral approach to information sharing on emerging drugs of concern

Krista J Siefried^1,2,3,4*Penny Hill^1,3Brendan Clifford^1,2,3,4Jared Brown^5,6Andrew Camilleri⁷Sione Crawford⁸Paul Dessauer⁹Ella Dilkes-Frayne¹⁰Jack Freestone^1,3John Gobeil¹¹Mary E Harrod¹²Suzie Hudson⁵Philip Hull¹⁰Simon Lenton¹³Tom Lyons¹⁴Grace Oh¹⁵Amy Peacock^16,3Alice Pierce¹²Peter Sidaway¹⁷Jessamine Soderstrom^18,19Stephanie Tzanetis^20,21,22Nadine Ezard^1,23,3,4

• ¹the National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs, Sydney, Australia
• ²Alcohol and Drug Service, St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia
• ³National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Randwick, New South Wales, Australia
• ⁴Drug and Alcohol Clinical Research and Improvement Network, Sydney, Australia
• ⁵New South Wales Ministry of Health, Artarmon, Australia
• ⁶New South Wales Poisons Information Centre, Sydney Children's Hospital Network, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia
• ⁷Forensic Science SA, Adelaide, Australia
• ⁸Harm Reduction Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
• ⁹Peer Based Harm Reduction WA, Perth, Australia
• ¹⁰Population Health Division, ACT Health Directorate, Canberra, Australia
• ¹¹Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL), Turner, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
• ¹²NSW Users and AIDS Association (NUAA), Sydney, Australia
• ¹³National Drug Research Institute and enAble Institue, Curtin University, Perth, Australia
• ¹⁴Department of Health, Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
• ¹⁵Australian Drug Education and Consultancy, Bellevue, Australia
• ¹⁶School of Psychological Sciences, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia
• ¹⁷Northern Territory AIDS and Hepatitis Council (NTAHC), Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
• ¹⁸Emergency Medicine, Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
• ¹⁹Centre for Clinical Research in Emergency Medicine, Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
• ²⁰Pill Testing Australia, Canberra, ACT, Australia
• ²¹Directions Health Services, Canberra, ACT, Australia
• ²²Canberra Alliance for Harm Minimisation & Advocacy (CAHMA), Canberra, ACT, Australia
• ²³St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney, Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia

The rapid emergence of new psychoactive substances (NPS) and other emerging drugs of concern presents a significant global public health challenge, necessitating agile and interconnected drug information systems to identify and communicate risks. In Australia, responses have traditionally been localised, lacking a nationally coordinated system to rapidly share information about emerging drug threats. The National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs (NCCRED) collaborated with jurisdictional networks, clinicians, scientists, policy-makers and peer organisations to co-design and co-produce the national Prompt Response Network ("PRN"). This process identified key components necessary to create an effective healthfocused national network that supports and enhances existing and emerging jurisdictional and specialist early warning networks. The co-creation process resulted in several outputs, including a formalised national PRN group, an online knowledge exchange platform, a national website for disseminating drug alerts, and identified needs for a national drug signal database and an anecdotal reporting system.The PRN is the first Australian national public-health-focused mechanism for information exchange on new and emerging drugs and drug trends of concern. It provides the means for timely and responsive sharing of localised data, better informing risk assessment and facilitating a coordinated approach to public health responses and local and national preparation for emerging risks. Achieving this required mobilising diverse disciplinary and community stakeholders towards a unified and collaborative response to preventing drug related harms.