Combating the opiod epidemic with big data analytics and a live, nationwide dashboard

Opioid use disorder is a significant public health problem in allstatesWhile various organizationssuch as state health agenciespublic health organizations and academia have developed tracking and analytics mechanisms for this epidemiccurrent approaches typically have two major limitationslimited geographic coverage andtime delayed data that only cover late stages of opioid use disordersuch as overdose and death dataA key challenge of the opioid epidemic is to aggregate and analyze relevant data from various sources over large geographic areas in order to uncover leading trends early enough to be able to intervene effectively and efficientlyThis project proposes creating and evaluating a nationwidelive and dynamic opioid analytics dashboard for the United StatesThe main source for this dashboard is a continuously growing laboratory results database currently comprised of overbillion records froms of US clinical laboratory sitesdating back toThis data set contains opioid related test results from both legalsuch as medically prescribedas well as illicit use of drugsIn Specific Aimwe will create a livenationwide opioid analytics dashboard for the United States using a user centered design strategyThis aim will build on our preliminary work of having built and licensed state focused dashboards for Tennessee and IndianaThrough several focus groupswe will first define localregional and national use cases for additional analyses and visualizations in collaboration with public healthhealthcare provider and pharmaceutical organizationsSubsequentlywe will implement additional decision focused functionality and scale up the opioid analytics dashboard to allstatesIn Specific Aimwe will conduct formative evaluation and preliminary validation of the dashboardThe formative evaluation will consist of heuristic evaluationcognitive walk through and usability testingFor the preliminary validationwe have partnered with the Marion County Public Health DepartmentMCPHDand the Regenstrief Institute Data Core to conduct a series of analyses that will compare hccomandapos s data and analytics results with data about patient demographicstoxicology resultstrends over time and other variables in the Indiana Network for Patient Careand overdose ambulance runsopioid related ED visits and OD deaths from the MCPHDOur project is significant because the opioid epidemic is a severe and rapidly developing problem at the localregional and national levelTo cope with this epidemicwe must synthesize and analyze relevant data that arefragmented across a variety of settingssiloed in different data repositories and formatsdifficult to interpret and navigateandcomplex to aggregate due to the lack of adherence to naming conventions or standardsOur project is highly innovative because it willproduce a nationwidelive and dynamic opioid analytics dashboardwhich currently does not existanduse data that are generated much earlier in an individualandapos s journey into opioid use disorder than most current metrics of the epidemicThusour system provides significantly greater opportunities for monitoringpreventionand intervention than current approaches Opioid use disorder is a significant public health problem in allstatesCurrent approachessuch as statebased dashboardshave multiple limitations as tracking and analytics mechanisms for this epidemicThis project proposes creating a nationwideliveand dynamic opioid analytics dashboard that offers significantly greater capabilities for monitoringpreventionand intervention than current systems!