How to Build Opioid Data Dashboards for Community Decision-Making: Best Practices from the HCS

-Data dashboards are powerful tools that can support community engagement and decision-making by providing public health surveillance and early detection of emerging health threats, as well as facilitating efficient resource allocation. These dashboards serve as a transparent and customizable platform for communicating critical information in easy-to-understand, interactive formats (e.g., charts, graphs, maps) to policymakers, stakeholders, community members, and the public. Many states and jurisdictions across the country have utilized data dashboards to identify trends, evaluate the effectiveness of existing policies, and develop targeted interventions to quell the ongoing substance use disorder and overdose crisis.

As part of the HEALing Communities Study (HCS), a multi-site research study that tested the impact of an integrated set of evidence-based practices to reduce fatal opioid-related overdose, researchers from four participating research sites (New York, Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Ohio) developed community dashboards to support data-driven decision-making.

The webinar explores how data dashboards can facilitate evidence-based decision-making by providing insights into effective approaches, gaps in substance use disorder services, and opportunities to address challenges within communities. Presenters provide a step-by-step walkthrough of the undertakings to develop the HCS dashboards, including the process of accessing, displaying, and explaining data; co-designing dashboards with state and local partners; implementing and using dashboards in the community; and best practices for using and sustaining them. They also share publicly available tools that communities can use to develop their own dashboards, as well as a set of standardized measures used by HCS for data collection.

Speakers:
-Jennifer Villani, PhD, MPH, Associate Director of the HEALing Communities Study at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
-Naleef Fareed, PhD, Associate Professor at The Ohio State University College of Medicine
-Daniel Harris, PhD, Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy
-Elwin Wu, PhD, Professor of Social Work at Columbia University
-Peter Balvanz, MPH, Associate Director of Informatics at the Boston Medical Center
-Jessica Hulsey, Executive Director, Addiction Policy Forum