Rhode Island Advancing Violence Epidemiology in Real-Time (AVERT) - Firearm deaths are a serious public health problem in the United States and Rhode Island; many more people suffer from nonfatal firearm injuries, other violence-related injuries, and mental health conditions, which increase the risk for negative outcomes associated with injury. Through this funding opportunity, the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) will implement two strategies to achieve six main outcomes by the end of the project period. RIDOH will increase the timeliness of aggregate reporting of emergency department (ED) visits for firearm injuries, regardless of intent, in addition to other violence-related injuries, and mental health conditions (Strategy 1). RIDOH meets the syndromic surveillance eligibility criteria outlined in the application and will build on past successes utilizing ED data in ESSENCE to validate and monitor the syndrome definitions outlined in the application. The proposed activities will lead to increased availability of rapid, reliable, geographically-, and population-specific data for the identified syndromes (Outcome 1) and increased use of timely and specific data (Outcomes 2 and 3). Ultimately, partners working to prevent violence will be able to use these data to develop focused plans and response strategies to prevent violence and improve wellbeing among populations at greatest risk (Outcome 4). RIDOH also plans to disseminate data to various key partners (Strategy 2) and will develop a detailed dissemination plan by the end of Year 1. RIDOH plans to utilize lessons learned from drug overdose prevention to create an alert system for partners and plans to create and share a variety of dissemination product including a data dashboard, maps, and reports. These activities will lead to increased reach of violence syndromic surveillance findings (Outcome 5) and increased availability of success stories (Outcome 6). RIDOH is also applying for additional funding through the Optional Data Linkage Activity. Visit-level ED data for the identified syndromes will be matched as described to records in RIDOH’s hospital discharge data, ambulance runs from RIDOH’s emergency medical services database, and deaths from the Rhode Island Violent Death Reporting System. Data linkages to these complementary data sources will provide a more complete understanding of violence across the state and assist with prevention strategies.
