• Felicia Marie Knaul, Héctor Arreola-Ornelas, Xiaoxiao J Kwete, Afsan Bhadelia, Stefano Berterame, Stephen R Connor, Liliana De Lima, Julia Downing, Eric L Krakauer, Oscar Méndez-Carniado, Tania Pastrana, Pedro E Pérez-Cruz, Russell K Portenoy, William E Rosa, Michael Touchton, Valentina Vargas Enciso, and Lukas Radbruch.
• University of Miami Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas (F.M.K., H.A.O, X.K., A.B., W.R., V.V.E.), University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA; Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine (F.M.K.), University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA; Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico; Tómatelo a Pecho, A.C. (F.M.K., H.A.O., O.M.C.), Mexico, Mexico.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2024 Oct 28.

ContextEstimates of serious health-related suffering (SHS) demonstrate immense unmet need for palliative care, predominately in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Because opioids are essential medicines in palliative care (PC), measuring their availability can be used to evaluate the capacity of health systems to meet need.ObjectivesPresent the methodology for calculating Distributed Opioids in Morphine Equivalents (DOME)- introduced in the Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief report - and how it can be used as a simple indicator to quantify unmet pain relief and PC need.MethodsUsing International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) data, DOME applies relative potency estimates to convert the annualized quantities of clinically appropriate opioids procured by a country to oral morphine equivalent milligrams. To quantify unmet need, an expert group proposed health condition-specific estimates for opioid need and used available data on the burden of SHS to posit the annual opioid quantity required by country for symptomatic treatment of pain or breathlessness. Comparing this to DOME generates DOME%SHSNEED, the proportion of opioids needed for palliative care that can be fulfilled by the opioid procured by a country during a year.ResultsDOME and DOME%SHSNEED can be used to measure, over time, the capacity of countries to meet PC need, as a key component of universal health coverage. Identifying access gaps disproportionately impacting LMICs can promote better health system performance and guide countries and institutions in policy making.ConclusionDOME and DOME%SHSNEED can be used to monitor health system progress to redress disparities and promote access to medically indicated opioid therapy in palliative care.Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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