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State to use Pitt lab for data-driven approach to opioid crisis

Patrick Sison/AP

State to use Pitt lab for data-driven approach to opioid crisis

Two weeks after launching a new information system to better track the opioid epidemic, the Wolf administration is partnering with the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health on an enhanced system to analyze and predict how best to address it.

State officials announced Tuesday that the Aetna Foundation has provided a $1 million grant that will fund a two-year project at Pitt’s Public Health Dynamics Laboratory. The computer-oriented lab staff will build upon what is available through the newly created Pennsylvania Opioid Data Dashboard.

That dashboard details the extent of the narcotics epidemic, the efforts to combat it and the available help. Sophisticated analytics available at Pitt will use such data to make speedier assessments of problems and to predict how different strategies could address them, state and university officials said. The ultimate goal, they said, is to become more nimble responding to the crisis.

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“Through this partnership, we will be able to not only see what is happening locally, but will be able to use that information to predict future trends,” Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine said. “This new dashboard 2.0 will help determine areas where prevention is working and where treatment and resources can be focused.”

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Donald Burke, dean of the Graduate School of Public Health, said the lab team will be able to run computer models evaluating different approaches, whether undertaken by schools, law enforcement, medical professionals, government agencies or others involved in combating opioid addiction. The lab’s analysis of data coming in from hospitals, police departments and others might also serve as an “early warning system” of where and how new problems are developing, he said.

“This is an area where the approach of data-driven analytics and modeling expertise can make a significant difference,” Dr. Burke said. “The ultimate goal is to allow officials to target the best resources to save as many lives as possible. A lot of data is there already but siloed, hidden and unused.”

Gary Rotstein: grotstein@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1255.

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First Published: March 27, 2018, 5:02 p.m.
Updated: March 27, 2018, 5:12 p.m.

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