Demand Reduction Smart Tool for Analysis and Research(STAR)

Project Summary Abstract In CICAD Inter American Drug Abuse Control Committee convened a group of international experts to develop a Demand Reduction Information Framework DRIF for the design of public strategies policies and programs in demand reduction The goal of this SBIR Innovation is to build upon the DRIF by creating a smart online interactive visual analytic dashboard STAR to contextualize core indicators that are critical to the design of public strategies policies and programs and to inform policy and program managers decision making STAR integrates NIDA s key findings from substance abuse prevention and treatment research for the design of public health strategies policies and programs to mitigate the damaging consequences of substance abuse While DRIF lays the foundation for data driven demand reduction policy program and practice decision makers still face major challenges in turning complex and often fragmented data into useable information First it is difficult to determine the quality of data garbage in garbage out Second no matter how feature rich the visual presentation software the information is not useful without business context Third there is a dependency on data analysts and IT personnel to unlock insights from available data STAR will address all three challenges by empowering decision makers and managers to visually analyze the key indicators defined by DRIF in real time Project Narrative While the development of Demand Reduction Information Framework DRIF by international experts lays the foundation for data driven demand reduction policy program and practice decision makers in demand reduction still face major challenges in turning complex and often fragmented data into useable information First it is difficult to determine the quality of data garbage in garbage out Second no matter how feature rich the visual presentation software the information is not useful without business context Third there is a dependency on data analysts and IT personnel to unlock insights from available data The proposed innovation STAR visual analytic dashboard service will address all three challenges by empowering decision makers and managers to visually analyze the key indicators defined by DRIF in real time to contextualize core indicators that are critical to the design of public strategies policies and programs and to inform policy and program managers decision making