The Injury and Violence Prevention Section (IVPS) at the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) is preparing an application for the CDC National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) grant. This would continue the work that Minnesota has been doing since 2015 for NVDRS and would include, among other elements, data on victims in Minnesota who died by violence, the perpetrator, weapon used, and circumstances involved.
The purpose of NVDRS is to assist state governments in understanding the extent of violence-related deaths, identifying risk factors, and developing and evaluating violence prevention program efforts. In collaboration with partners, the MDH will collect standard CDC data elements on all violent deaths in their targeted areas. The data will then be entered into CDC-managed web system. Data elements will be collected from three sources:
• death certificates (DC),
• coroner/medical examiner (CME) reports (including toxicology reports), and
• law enforcement (LE) reports.
In 2019, a record-high of 984 people died from suicide or homicide in Minnesota. This was 45% higher than a decade earlier. Available statistics from 2020 and 2021 indicate over 1,000 deaths each year in Minnesota will meet the NVDRS inclusion criteria. Despite this increasing trends, MDH staff have continued to improve processes and efficiencies such that the 2020 data year for NVDRS had 78% of cases with law enforcement circumstances and 90% of cases with medical examiner/coroner circumstances checked, both the highest totals ever achieved in Minnesota.
Outcomes expected from continuing the Minnesota VDRS project include, but are not limited to, improved data accuracy and completeness of NVDRS data, launch of a data dashboard for Minnesota VDRS, increased number of users of Minnesota VDRS data, and a reduction in suicide and homicide in Minnesota, particularly among disproportionately affected populations.
Through a combination of experienced staff, a revised and improved work plan, and dedication to this important work, the Minnesota VDRS team is looking forward to enhancing the quality and accuracy of the NVDRS system through 2027.