‘Edna’ helps doctors find 50 new psychoactive drugs being used in Australia
'Where we’ve come from, we had no idea what recreational drugs were causing presentations', says Jessamine Soderstrom.
Dr Jessamine Soderstrom is one of two doctors behind Australia’s national program for identifying new illicit drugs appearing on the black market.
It is called the Emerging Drugs Network of Australia (EDNA).
The program was started in 2020 by Dr Soderstrom and ED doctor Professor Daniel Fatovich, following a similar project called the WA Illicit Substance Evaluation (WISE) study, whereby doctors sent blood samples from intoxicated patients to a nearby forensic laboratory for testing.
WISE ran out of Royal Perth Hospital, where Dr Soderstrom works as an ED physician and clinical toxicologist.
