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Ohio Launches New Statewide Overdose Data Dashboard

Last week, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine unveiled a new data dashboard to track and report overdose and substance use measures throughout the entire state.

Designed to assist local organizations and communities to better respond to overdoses as trends change, the dashboard provides a clear display of information to the public, including the most current statistics on overdoses and overdose deaths in Ohio.

More than 50 opioid-related measures can be tracked by the dashboard, including the number of overdoses treated in emergency departments, opioid and nonopioid-related overdose deaths, high-risk prescribing, emergency medical services (EMS) events with suspected opioid poisoning, and general community health and demographics.

This statewide dashboard is an expansion of dashboards created as part of the National Institutes of Health-funded HEALing Communities Study, which focused on investigating how tools at a local level are most effective in preventing and treating opioid misuse and overdoses.

“Expanding the HEALing Communities Study dashboards to all 88 Ohio counties provides invaluable data that will allow local organizations and communities to better plan for their needs as they battle this public health crisis in our state – and ultimately save lives,” said Governor Mike DeWine.

Researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine originally developed community-tailored, data-driven dashboards that included opioid overdose deaths and other opioid use disorder-related measures for 18 counties in Ohio.

Based on the success of these dashboards, the State of Ohio and RecoveryOhio have implemented them statewide. Over the next several weeks, RecoveryOhio will be available for virtual office hours and offer virtual training to help communities learn how to best implement these dashboards.

“The dashboards allow us to use real-time research to focus prevention, treatment and recovery programs across the state in a transparent platform available to the public,” said RecoveryOhio Director Aime Shadwick. “Eventually, we will expand these databases to not only include data on opioid use disorders, but all substance use disorders.”

In 2021, 5,210 people died of a drug overdose in the state of Ohio — an increase of more than 1,000 since 4,107 people died of overdoses in 2019. In just Cuyahoga County, drug overdose deaths have increased from 459 in 2018 to 580 in 2021.

For more information, visit RecoveryOhio.