J Public Health Manag Pract
September 2024
Context: Data dashboards have emerged as critical tools for surveillance and informing resource allocation. Despite their utility and popularity during COVID-19, there is a growing need to understand what tools and training are tailored to nonprofit community-based organizations that may partner with public health officials.
Program: In June 2021, the Rhode Island Department of Health and Brown University partnered to create Project SIGNAL (Spatiotemporal Insights to Guide Nuanced Actions Locally), which utilizes spatiotemporal analytics to identify Rhode Island's largest disparities in COVID-19-related outcomes (eg, testing, diagnosis, vaccinations) at the neighborhood level.
Background: Federal, state, and municipal governments in the United States have been reluctant to authorize overdose prevention centers (OPCs), which are evidence-based approaches for preventing overdose deaths and blood-borne pathogen transmission.
Methods: From July 2022 to February 2023, we explored how stigma manifests in OPC policymaking by conducting in-depth interviews with 17 advocates, legislators, service providers, and researchers involved with OPC advocacy and policymaking in Rhode Island, California, Pennsylvania, and New York.
Results: We found that although jurisdictions differed in their OPC policymaking experiences, stigma manifested throughout the process, from planning to authorization.