Margot Balcaen
Margot Balcaen completed her master in pharmaceutical sciences in 2020. Afterwards, she joined the Drugs Unit of Sciensano. She has expertise in different aspects of the drug phenomenon, including the drug market and available substances, trends and evolutions in the drug situation, and possible public health implications. She coordinated projects such as the online survey Drug Vibes among people who use drugs, SCANNER, a project zooming in on new psychoactive substances and RADAR, the project looking into the quality and profile of retail level heroin in Belgium. She is also involved in the Belgian Early Warning System on Drugs. Overall, she has a strong interest in developing innovative monitoring methods for increased drug intelligence.
Session
Background: An improved and holistic understanding of the complexity of the drug phenomenon —spanning supply and demand, security, and health — calls for innovative and multidimensional research strategies. Single-method approaches increasingly prove to fall short of capturing the nuanced realities of this dynamic issue. Therefore, a triangulation of multiple data sources and the combination of both qualitative and quantitative findings, emerges as pivotal tool to gain deeper drug intelligence. Comprehensive and multidimensional data drives the design of effective and targeted interventions and policy actions.
Objectives: Our scoping review examines the existing landscape of multi-method and multi-data methodologies used in studies addressing the drug phenomenon. By mapping these approaches, the review examines the evolution over time, evaluates the motivations driving adoption, shares the added value of the systems and analyses the challenges encountered during development. Other key questions include: Are multi-method approaches genuinely as prevalent and versatile as they seem? Is there a balanced emphasis on both supply and demand aspects? What approach was taken to achieve the triangulation of data sources?
Methods: The review adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines, with the a priori protocol developed in accordance with Joanna Briggs Institute recommendations. Searches were conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for articles published between 1 January 2000 and 8 October 2024. This was supplemented with a search for grey literature in Google Scholar.
Results: The review highlights the potential of the examined methodologies to address the multidisciplinary drug phenomenon. It also assesses their value, offering critical insights into their implementation for real-time monitoring and rapid drug assessment. This scoping review supports the development of future multi-method models to generate increased and comprehensive drug intelligence, thereby reinforcing evidence-informed policymaking.