Home > Development of a digital platform to improve community response to overdose and prevention among harm reduction organizations.

Claborn, Kasey and Creech, Suzannah and Conway, Fiona N and Clinton, Nina M and Brinkley, Katlyn T and Lippard, Elizabeth and Ramos, Tristan and Samora, Jake and Miri, Aaron and Benzer, Justin (2022) Development of a digital platform to improve community response to overdose and prevention among harm reduction organizations. Harm Reduction Journal, 19, 62. doi: 10.1186/s12954-022-00636-2.

External website: https://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/art...

The overdose crisis in the USA remains a growing and urgent public health concern. Over 108,000 people died due to overdose during 2021. Fatal and non-fatal overdoses are under-reported in the USA due to current surveillance methods. Systemic gaps in overdose data limit the opportunity for data-driven prevention efforts and resource allocation. This study aims to improve overdose surveillance and community response through developing a digital platform for overdose reporting and response among harm reduction organizations. We used a community-engaged, user-center design research approach. We conducted qualitative interviews with N = 44 overdose stakeholders including people who use drugs and harm reductionists. Results highlighted the need for a unified, multilingual reporting system uniquely tailored for harm reduction organizations. Anonymity, data transparency, protection from legal repercussions, data accuracy, and community-branded marketing emerged as key themes for the overdose platform. Emergent themes included the need for real-time data in a dashboard designed for community response and tailored to first responders and harm reduction organizations. This formative study provides the groundwork for improving overdose surveillance and data-driven response through the development of an innovative overdose digital platform.


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