SAS® Analytics links New Jersey law enforcement and prescription drug data to combat opioid addiction

New Jersey serves as national role model in creating data-driven strategies to national health crisis

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Apr 24, 2019, 12:45 ET

CARY, N.C., April 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- New Jersey has chosen SAS^® Analytics to design and build a digital platform and database that will help advance Gov. Phil Murphy's plan to fight the state's opioid epidemic through data-driven strategies. The recently launched Integrated Drug Awareness Dashboard ("IDAD") harnesses analytics to create a computerized, information-sharing dashboard to exchange opioid-related data within the state.

Information gleaned from the IDAD will help create a holistic picture of New Jersey's opioid environment that will aid the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General in developing and analyzing data that can be used to target intervention initiatives, enhance public outreach and education efforts, and develop other data-driven solutions to the opioid epidemic that is claiming lives in New Jersey and across the nation.

"New Jersey recognizes this isn't just a law enforcement or public health crisis. It requires a coordinated effort between all those tasked with preserving the safety and well-being of citizens," said Steve Kearney, Medical Director for SAS. "Through its efforts to fight the opioid epidemic on multiple fronts, the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General has established the state as an innovative leader in balancing the need to enforce the law with the need to help people in crisis. SAS is proud to play an important role in creating and launching the groundbreaking IDAD technology."

As part of Phase I of the project, the IDAD currently enables officials from across the Department of Law and Public Safety to exchange and analyze opioid-related data that previously has been kept in separate silos within each agency.

Data now available through the IDAD includes the number and types of prescription opioids being dispensed throughout the state, drug lab analysis data and the locations of heroin, fentanyl and other drug-related arrests.

Plans are underway to enhance the IDAD to include other state agencies and to expand the types of data included in the system, including public health data.

Grant funding for the IDAD comes, in part, from the US Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance's Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Program.

The New Jersey Office of the Attorney General is one of several government agencies SAS is working with to combat the opioid problem. Learn more about how analytics can help prevent substance use disorder and overprescribing.

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