Since 2008, drug overdose deaths exceeded the number of motor vehicle traffic-related deaths in Indiana, and the gap continues to widen1. While federal funding opportunities are available for states, it often takes years for best practices to be developed, shared, and published. Similarly, local health departments (LHDs) may experience lengthy delays to receive finalized county health statistics. Indiana collects and stores syndromic emergency department data in the Public Health Emergency Surveillance System (PHESS) and uses the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics version 1.21 (ESSENCE) to monitor public health events and trends. In July 2017, the Indiana Overdose Surveillance Team (IOST) developed a standard process for monitoring and alerting local health partners of increases in drug overdoses captured in ESSENCE at the county level. ISDH is enhancing these alerts by mapping the data in GIS and providing spatiotemporal data to LHDs to inform more targeted intervention and prevention efforts.
Objective: This poster presentation shares Indiana's approach of alerting local health departments (LHDs) with near real-time drug overdose data and how this process has been enhanced through mapping and analysis with a geographic information system (GIS).