Putting needles to numbers: How they're tracking the heroin epidemic in Summit County


The existence of an opioid abuse crisis is widely acknowledged, however there is a lack of efficient methodologies to collect, analyze, and disseminate data related to the crisis. The Summit County public health department uses EpiCenter—software created for epidemiologists—to collect data on hospitalizations, overdoses, and calls to emergency services and analyze opioid abuse data in the same way as the flu or other diseases. The data is published online and allows for policy makers to better understand where to allocate resources as well as providing insight to county residents on the extent of opioid abus

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