Interactive Network Visualization of Opioid Crisis Related Data- Policy, Pharmaceutical, Training, and More

TL;DR

This paper presents an interactive network visualization tool that integrates multiple U.S. opioid-related datasets across four themes to support public health decision-making and policy analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel interactive network visualization that combines 20 diverse opioid-related data resources, enhancing understanding of data interlinkages and coverage for public health insights.

Findings

Visualization covers four key themes: prescriptions, harms, workforce, policy.

The tool enables exploration of data metadata, scholarly works, and interconnections.

Freely available online for public health decision support.

Abstract

Responding to the U.S. opioid crisis requires a holistic approach supported by evidence from linking and analyzing multiple data sources. This paper discusses how 20 available resources can be combined to answer pressing public health questions related to the crisis. It presents a network view based on U.S. geographical units and other standard concepts, crosswalked to communicate the coverage and interlinkage of these resources. These opioid-related datasets can be grouped by four themes: (1) drug prescriptions, (2) opioid related harms, (3) opioid treatment workforce, jobs, and training, and (4) drug policy. An interactive network visualization was created and is freely available online; it lets users explore key metadata, relevant scholarly works, and data interlinkages in support of informed decision making through data analysis.