SAS-Created Research Group to Utilize Medical, Police Data to Combat Opioid Abuse

SAS has established an Opioid Analytics Users Group that seeks to analyze data from medical records, toxicology results, and police reports nationwide to develop insights into which areas of the country require aid in the ongoing opioid crisis, GovTech reported Friday.

The research group includes representatives from industry, academia and the public sector that will work to develop ways of using the data that will enable state and local governments to identify key areas for medical treatment as well as law enforcement operations.

“We can use the data to identify hot spots, to get rapid recovery teams in, to deliver services to those people — and also to identify the sources of these illicit drugs,” said Steve Kearney, medical director for SAS.

SAS previously supported the development of an analytics toolkit for the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General that utilizes SAS-developed programming code to process data on Medicaid beneficiaries related to opioid abuse.

The company also helped create the Integrated Drug Awareness Dashboard for the New Jersey Attorney General’s office, which uses data analytics to promote public outreach and identify needs for intervention efforts.