State aims to fight drug addiction with data, partnering with Pitt and Aetna
Aetna Chief Medical Officer Dr. Harold Paz says the goal of the partnership is to make sense of data more quickly so the state can give the right resources to each community. (Brett Sholtis/Transforming Health)
As the opioid epidemic ravages communities, the state has partnered with University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and the Aetna Foundation to combat the crisis.
The Wolf administration hopes to improve its recently launched “opioid data dashboard,” an online, public tool that provides county-level information on things like the number of people saved with the overdose-reversing drug naloxone. Pitt’s role is to help interpret that data, while Aetna is providing a one-million dollar grant.
Ellen DiDomenico is the acting deputy secretary of the state’s Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. She said it’s important to have the ability to make sense of the data quickly so policymakers can get resources to the right communities.
“There is often a lack of real-time data to drive our practices, and so we have to hope that what we’re doing will really make the difference that we believe it will be,” she said. “This is not a one-size-fits-all epidemic.”
The information could drive things such as where to send more of the overdose-reversing drug naloxone, or where to increase programs for babies who were exposed to opiates.
Department of Health spokeswoman April Hutcheson said the data will also be used to predict future problem areas and target those communities with prevention efforts.
State officials said the data portal will remain online and available to the public.
