Sunday, May 11, 2025
5/11/2025
Using Drug Overdose Data to Inform and Build Evidence-Based Prevention in Philadelphia - There is no corner in Philadelphia that remains untouched by the opioid epidemic. In 2017, Philadelphia experienced 1,217 deaths from drug overdoses, a 30% increase from 2016. Of the counties associated with the 10 largest U.S. cities, Philadelphia had more than double the rate of drug overdose deaths in 2017. Over 85% of overdose fatalities in Philadelphia involve an opioid. The City of Philadelphia is taking steps to address the opioid epidemic, including developing prevention programs, expanding access to medication-assisted treatment, and supporting harm reduction programs. It is essential that we enhance local capacity to respond to the epidemic and improve collaboration with state and local partners to coordinate activities. Funding from the CDC National Center for Injury Prevention and Control’s Overdose Data to Action grant, CDC-RFA-CD19-1904, will allow the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) to develop, implement and measure several initiatives that reflect a key priority of both the CDC and the City of Philadelphia, reducing opioid-related morbidity and mortality. With this funding, PDPH will: a) enhance city-wide surveillance (Strategy 3, including developing an Overdose Fatality Review team, conducting an annual survey of drug users, developing a protocol to identify overdose outbreaks, and tracking non-fatal overdoses reported from city hospitals and first responders); b) obtain greater value from the PDMP (Strategy 4, including promoting PDMP use, improving PDMP data quality, and using PDMP data to reduce over-prescribing); c) better integrate state and local prevention and response efforts (Strategy 5, including building local capacity for surveillance and prevention and implementing rapid responses to overdose clusters); d) establish linkages to care (Strategy 6, including developing protocols for warm hand-off from hospital emergency departments, linking people to care following a nonfatal overdose, improving connections between physical health systems and drug treatment providers, and developing a data system to measure and improve linkage); e) augment support given to providers and health systems (Strategy 7, including promoting CDC opioid prescribing guidelines and naloxone distribution from health systems); f) strengthen partnerships with public safety and first responders (Strategy 8, including data sharing with criminal justice/first responder agencies, support for Police Assisted Diversion and the Fire Department’s Alternate Response Unit, which is dedicated to overdose survivors), and g) empower individuals to make safer choices (Strategy 9, including public education campaigns on prescription opioids and naloxone, and community educational sessions and trainings). PDPH will leverage existing partnerships with state and local government agencies, health systems and community organizations to facilitate this work, and develop the capacity to 1) capture data in a systematic and meaningful way, and 2) ensure it is disseminated rapidly to inform ongoing and new initiatives and policies.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).