Beaufort County Data 360 - Data Driven Community Decision for Making Substance Misuse Grant uri icon

abstract

  • United States is facing an unprecedent epidemic of substance abuse, especially the illicit drug abuse. Beaufort county, an under-resourced rural community, is no exception to the epidemic. The number of cases has increased in recent years. To tackle the crisis, under the leadership of the community organization Beaufort 360, a Behavioral Health Task force has formed with representatives from many stakeholders in the area. The task force has worked diligently to create a strategic plan and actively been collecting relevant data such as resources available to the public and number of cases in the neighborhoods. To support further action planning, the task force has expressed strong needs for external assistance on the process of asset mapping and evidence-based prioritization and action planning. The project team, consisted of faculty from the Department of Health Services and Information Management and the Department of Addiction and Rehabilitation Study, will help the community to accomplish these goals. Specifically, the ECU team will work in the following three areas: 1. Data organization: Collecting and organizing relevant data from disparate sources that could be used for strategic action plan to address substance misuse in the community. These data sources could include state health information exchange, Electronic Health Records, Prescriptions, EMS, Police system and others. A resource list, verified by staff from the task force, will also be used for data visualization and analysis. 2. Data Mapping: Once pertinent data are collected from the sources identified in step 1, we will use business intelligence mapping tools to visualize and analyze the data. The maps will be customized to both the public and decision makers in the community. All patient information will be protected according to the HIPAA legislation. 3. Strategic Action Planning: An expert in substance misuse and mental health on the team will then work closely with the community, based on the information exhibited in the system developed in step 2, to create an action plan for the community to set priority when investing the limited resources on reducing substance misuse. Our vision is that the two-year project will generate three deliverables: 1. A data warehouse containing organized data from different sources for managing substance misuse. 2. An interactive map customized to both consumers and community decision makers with data displayed at the zip code level. 3. A strategic action plan that the task force could use as a roadmap to mitigate the substance misuse in the community.

date/time interval

  • January 2019 - December 2023