We’ve all seen the statistics: Drug overdoses, most of which are related to opioids, killed over 64,000 people in the United States last year — an increase of 21% over 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The opioid crisis hit Indiana especially hard. In 2015, IV drug use in Indiana caused the nation’s worst HIV outbreak in 20 years, affecting rural Scott County.
Let’s face it — the issue is complicated. There are challenges with both prescription and illicit drugs. Solutions must reduce the number of people who become addicts in the first place, as well as cure those who do. The underlying issue of pain management must be addressed.
For all these reasons, the State of Indiana has recognized that understanding the data, and blending them with statistics from other agencies, is key to solving the complexities of the drug crisis in Indiana, and hopefully the nation.
Issie Lapowsky described the state’s efforts to attack the problem in an enlightening articlethis fall in Wired magazine. Earlier this year, Indiana started an online opioid data center, where pharmacies, hospitals, mental health organizations, police departments and others can share data to help everyone see the big picture of what is really going on across the state.
Working with the analytics-software provider SAP, the State of Indiana constructed a database that includes information on drug arrests, drug seizures, death records, pharmacy robberies, overdose-related ambulance calls, and the use of naloxone, an overdose-reversal drug. State officials also incorporated the data-visualization tools from Tableau, so agencies providing the data can log in and observe trends over time.
This far-reaching data-sharing effort—including some 16 government agencies—is amazing in a country still struggling to keep up with the recent explosion of opioid abuse.
The state’s efforts are beginning to pay off. To decide where to locate five new opioid treatment facilities, the team took a map of state’s existing treatment facilities and meshed it with a map of overdose cases and instances where paramedics administered naloxone. Then, they measured the distance from the areas with the most overdoses to the nearest treatment location to identify gaps where new facilities might be most helpful.
They’ve also been able to monitor drug seizures real time, to monitor new drugs that are hitting the black market. This can help the state spot new drug outbreaks before they reach crisis levels.
If you’d like to hear more about how big data is transforming public health and learn what’s next in the battle against the opioid scourge, check out the INconversation with Dr. Jennifer Walthall, Secretary of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration on Jan. 24 from 4-5:30 p.m. at Indiana Humanities, 1500 N. Delaware. Dr. Walthall is leading the charge to use data to target the areas of the state most in need of treatment programs.
Kudos to the team for their efforts to foster collaboration and data sharing to help agencies collectively address the opioid issue real time!
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