October 19th, 2021

Combatting opioid misuse, addiction, and recovery is an incredibly complex issue influenced by unique factors in every community. Because of this complexity, organizations must collect vast amounts of data and disaggregate this data further to understand the impacts of socioeconomic status, race, gender, and more.

Furthermore, determining cause and effect is not a simple matter. Creating an impact on the opioid epidemic requires not only the collection of program-level data (outcomes achieved by program participants) but also population-level data (outcomes achieved within the entire target population). This approach will give a more accurate understanding of the relationship between individual and collective efforts.

Health organizations and agencies around the country are simplifying this complexity and accelerating their impact on the opioid epidemic through the power of online data dashboarding and collection tools. With a little research, you can find the right tools for your organization and accelerate your impact too.

The Compyle data collection and Clear Impact Scorecard data dashboarding software tools are just a couple of examples of tools that health organizations are utilizing to combat the effects of opioid misuse, prevent misuse, and help people recover.

These systems are effective because they are integrated to help health programs simplify and connect their overarching strategy with program-level activities through customized measures and storyboarding. Measures can include anything from overdose deaths to recovery programming access. Complete customization of language and organization allows different organizations to engage in whatever framework works best for them.

Utilizing data dashboard systems, whether they include Clear Impact Scorecard or not, is effective for developing, monitoring implementation, and improving drug misuse and prevention strategies and programming.

But you don’t have to take our word for it. Clear Impact software users are achieving equitable, sustainable, and measurable impacts on issues like opioid misuse, mental health, disease prevalence, and more.

Check out the following two examples for context:

Vermont Department of Health (VDH) – Substance Use Scorecard

For example, the Vermont Department of Health’s Substance Use Scorecard helps them monitor, implement, and publicly communicate their progress on opioid prevention, screening, intervention, treatment, and recovery (Vermont has removed Opioid indicators from this Scorecard and now uses it to track alcohol and other drug use).

Scorecard allows VDH to organize their data with the overarching outcome (result, goal, desire, etc.), “Prevent and eliminate the problems caused by opioid misuse.” Three indicators of community well-being help VDH to understand whether this outcome is being achieved. These include:

• Number of opioid analgesic morphine milligram equivalents (MMEs) dispensed per 100 residents
• Number of accidental (non-suicide) drug deaths involving opioids
• Number of accidental (non-suicide) drug deaths involving fentanyl

Using Scorecard, VDH is able to organize its programs and corresponding performance measures according to their relationship with population-level outcomes, as well as provide narratives and supporting documentation to help public viewers understand the data.

You can view VDH’s Substance Use Scorecard here.

North Carolina Division of Public Health (NCDPH) – Healthy North Carolina 2030 Scorecard

NCDPH utilizes Scorecard to track progress on their 2020 State Health Improvement Plan and communicate results with the public. One result NCDPH tracks in Scorecard is “All North Carolina residents live in communities with equitable access to substance use disorder services.” Now, these substances obviously cover more than just opioids, but the applicability is there.

One of the useful features of Scorecard for NCDPH is its built-in results-based process, which supports the NCDPH Results-Based Accountability approach to public health planning. They utilize Scorecard to monitor population-level indicators at the state level and then local health departments monitor program performance with three simple types of measures:

• How much did they do?
• How well did they do it?
• Is anyone better off?

Local North Carolina health departments and their partners can also link local scorecards to the state scorecard through partner connections. Again, this feature allows entire health systems to begin to analyze the complex relationship between programmatic efforts and population-level changes. This is not a simple feat but it can be facilitated by systems that allow you to more easily visualize relationships.

Finally, NCDPH is able to remain focused on health equity and disparity through the disaggregation of drug misuse and recovery access data. For example, NCDPH disaggregates its “drug poisoning deaths” data by at least 5 different racial/ethnic groups and by sex (male/female).

You can view NCDPH’s entire Healthy North Carolina 2030 Scorecard here.

Opioid Lawsuit Settlement Agreements and Payouts

Clear Impact systems are also effective for helping health agencies and government-funded opioid programs remain accountable to and fulfill reporting requirements for various lawsuit settlements.

Governments of all levels around the U.S.  are engaged in ongoing investigations, litigation, and settlement discussions to hold pharmaceutical companies and other players accountable for their roles in the opioid crisis.

For example, North Carolina legislators wrote the North Carolina Memorandum of Agreement(NC MOA) in April 2021 to facilitate state and local compliance with the National Opioid Settlement and other related settlements. The NC MOA outlines various pre-approved opioid crisis abatement strategies and compliance requirements for counties and municipalities receiving opioid settlement funds.

Public dashboards may be beneficial to the successful implementation of settlement agreements like the NC MOA, in addition to helping organizations create measurable, equitable impact through opioid crisis remediation strategies.

For an example, read about 5 ways that Clear Impact Scorecard can help North Carolina Counties comply with NC MOA.

We would be honored to help you accelerate your impact on the opioid epidemic, fulfill your reporting requirements, and communicate more effectively with the public, partners, and stakeholders.

If you’re interested, please consider signing up for a customized demo with one of our friendly staff. You can also try Clear Impact Scorecard for free here.