Community dashboards to support data-informed decision-making in the HEALing communities study

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Addiction Research
• Implementation Science

Background:

• The U.S. faces an ongoing epidemic of opioid misuse, opioid use disorder (OUD), and opioid overdose deaths.
• The HEALing Communities Study (HCS) is the largest implementation study in addiction research, evaluating the Communities That Heal (CTH) intervention.
• The CTH intervention aims to reduce opioid overdose deaths in 67 communities across four states.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of community-tailored dashboards within the CTH intervention.
• To support community-engaged, data-driven decision-making for reducing opioid overdose deaths.
• To explore how dashboards can foster community-driven solutions for public health issues.

Main Methods:

• Community-tailored dashboards are web-based, interactive data visualizations of community-specific metrics.
• Metrics include opioid overdose deaths, OUD-related measures, and drivers of change.
• Dashboards are co-created by HCS researchers and community stakeholders, with evaluation using quantitative and qualitative data and website analytics.

Main Results:

• The study is evaluating the effectiveness of community-tailored dashboards in addressing the opioid epidemic.
• Data collection involves quantitative and qualitative methods, alongside website analytics, to assess dashboard use.
• The implementation of varied technical approaches across research sites is noted.

Conclusions:

• Community-tailored dashboards are central to the CTH intervention's data-driven approach.
• Lessons learned can inform interventions for other public health concerns impacting marginalized populations.
• The HCS advances understanding of how data tools can drive community-based solutions to the opioid crisis.