On Dec. 8, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), in partnership with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), announced via a press release the launch of a national data dashboard of non-fatal opioid overdoses across the U.S. The dashboard is the first of its kind.
The press release says that “At a time when a non-fatal overdose is a leading predictor for a future fatal overdose, widespread access to this data will help first responders on the frontlines of the overdose epidemic target life-saving interventions such as the overdose-reversal medication naloxone. The dashboard will also help inform service providers as they connect people to life-saving treatment for substance use disorder.”
The Biden Administration’s National Drug Control Strategy, according to the release, calls for improvements in the nation’s data systems to reach individuals that are at risk of an overdose. Additionally, the strategy aims to expand treatment for substance use disorder and high-impact hard reduction interventions, like naloxone. The dashboard advances these goals.
“The ONDCP Nonfatal Opioid Overdose Dashboard is informed by a derivation of clinical and patient characteristics within the National EMS Information System (NEMSIS) maintained by NHTSA,” the release says. “The NEMSIS data consist of electronic patient care records completed by nearly 95 percent of all EMS agencies nationwide. On average, the data submitted to the national NEMSIS database are 99 percent complete within two weeks.”
Moreover, “The Dashboard allows for comparisons of jurisdiction and of county level data to national averages in four categories: population rate of nonfatal opioid overdose in a community, average number of naloxone administrations per patient, average EMS time in transit to reach an overdose patient, and the percent of nonfatal opioid overdose patients who are not transported to a medical facility for further treatment. The Dashboard also features the jurisdictions and counties with highest rates of nonfatal overdoses in the prior rolling 12-month and 28-day periods.”
The data will be updated Monday mornings with a two-week lag. The dashboard will continue to evolve over the years and incorporate surveillance of nonfatal overdoses involving any drugs, patient outcomes, leading clinical measures, and more. The dashboard does not include other possible sources of naloxone administration (e.g., from community bystanders) and is considered and underestimate of all naloxone administration across the country.
Rahul Gupta, M.D., director of ONDCP was quoted in the release saying that “Before today, the best available data at our disposal was the number of Americans dying from an overdose, which was too late to help save a life. With this new dashboard, we can now provide first responders, clinicians, and policymakers with real-time, actionable information that will improve our response and save lives. President Biden’s Strategy makes clear that we must be guided by science to beat the overdose epidemic and this new data tracking system will help us do that.”
