BIO

I am a college sophomore majoring in Clinical Professions at Florida State University. I plan to attend medical school and become a physician, and some of my interests are public health, attending to underserved populations, and global health. For my research, I worked on a project called Overdose Data to Action (OD2A), which is a public health project that evaluates the success of overdose prevention programs in funded counties in the state of Florida.

Evaluation of Overdose Prevention Strategies

Abstract

In September 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) created Overdose Data to Action (OD2A), an initiative that unites state and local public health management to reduce opioid-related deaths. The Florida State University College of Medicine has assembled a group of evaluators that work directly with members of the CDC, the Florida Department of Health, and several target and pilot counties to assess the activities done under the grant and provide assistance with evaluation-related needs. This project is constituted under Strategy 5 of the grant, which involves the “integration of state and local prevention and response efforts” (CDC, 2019). The objective of this project was to evaluate the activities completed in the fourteen target counties under the grant from its inception through grant year two (September 2019 to June 30, 2021). To do this, the team conducted interviews with the Program Managers of each county. These interviews consisted of questions pertaining to the engagement of each county with stakeholders and other funded jurisdictions, and the collection of data. Following transcription of these interviews, a thematic analysis will be conducted to find common ideas between the interviews and important outlying information. Reports will then be generated using these themes to help the central office at the Florida Department of Health understand the activities of each jurisdiction. This kind of qualitative data is useful in determining how the money from this grant can be best utilized and what changes can be made to improve the program and reduce overdose deaths.

Keywords: Overdose Data to Action, OD2A, Public Health, Evaluation