Balancing Data Privacy With Access to Health Services and Research: Facilitating Confidential Information Sharing in US Multisystem Collaborations.

This article addresses data privacy issues as they relate to multisystem collaborations for prearrest deflection into treatment and services for those suffering from a substance use disorder. The authors explore how the US data privacy regulations pose barriers to collaboration and care coordination and how data privacy regulations affect researchers' ability to evaluate the impact of interventions intentioned to facilitate access to care. Fortunately, this regulatory landscape is evolving to strike a balance between protecting health information and sharing it for research, evaluation, and operations, including comments on the newly proposed federal administrative rule that will shape the future of deflection and health access in the United States.

Compliance Is Doable! A Framework for Navigating Privacy Regulations in Public Health and Public Safety Partnerships.

The past decade witnessed an explosion of public health/public safety collaborations. Many emerged as pragmatic responses to the opioid epidemic, where communities struggled to help individuals at risk of fatal and nonfatal overdoses. Multidisciplinary programs formed to actively engage people with services, including harm reduction, treatment, and peer support, instead of arrest.

A Data-Driven Response to the Addiction Crisis in Hamilton County, Ohio.

Context: For more than a decade, the state of Ohio has been an epicenter of the opioid crisis. Multiple interventions have been deployed to address this crisis and reduce opioid overdoses and overdose deaths in the state. The Hamilton County Addiction Response Coalition (HC ARC) and its strategic, countywide prearrest diversion (LEAD) and deflection (QRT) programs have been at the forefront of this effort in Cincinnati, Ohio.