Developers led by the Dell Medical School and the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin https://www.utexas.edu/austin, have created a digital reporting and surveillance system to track drug overdoses statewide which is referred to as Project Connect.
The rise of opioid and other drug overdoses is on the rise in Texas, but until now there hasn’t been a statewide system to collect overdose data. “Based on anecdotal evidence, between 50%-90% of overdoes in Texas go unreported,” said Kasey Claborn, Lead Researcher on the project and Assistant Professor at both Dell Med and the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. “One of the biggest hurdles to solving the crisis is the lack of accurate, consistent, and timely statewide data available on both fatal and nonfatal overdoses.”
Project CONNECT aims to provide a more complete picture of the overdose crisis in Texas and guide future interventions. The Project CONNECT team has already conducted a four month pilot with harm reduction groups in specific counties and is preparing to launch the platform statewide in 2022.
Project CONNECT is funded by the Texas Targeted Opioid Response (TTOR) Program of the Texas Health and Human Services Commissions and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) https://www.samhsa.gov.
Project CONNECT is able to track overdoes by location as they happen by creating data pools that can be used to understand the scope of the problem and get resources to the areas and to the people who need help.
To develop a comprehensive picture of existing barriers, Project CONNECT worked with community advisory boards at the four pilot sites across the state to identify obstacles to secure, accurate data collection.
In addition the team also interviewed more than 100 people in the community including those who use drugs, harm reductionists, first responders, healthcare workers, and other key stakeholders.
Also, to improve overdose reporting, Dell Med’s IT team worked with Google Cloud partner Maven Wave https://www.mavenwave.com to develop a pilot reporting site referred to as Texans Connecting Overdose Prevention Efforts of (TxCOPE.org).
TxCOPE.org is an application and web-based digital platform designed to track overdose data by a variety of groups gathering input including demographics, overdose event details, and the use of drugs such as naloxone to reverse overdoses.
According to Andrea Daugherty, Interim CIO at Dell Med, “This robust tracking system is designed to gather key metrics about overdose trends across the state and deliver the information to people who can put it to use, including those who direct funding, allocation or resources.”