Riddle us this…what does the national opioid crisis have to do with the technology sector? Stuck? Let’s rephrase—how can today’s technology, including artificial intelligence help minimize the nationwide plague taking the lives of so many innocent individuals who never wanted to go down that path to begin with?
Let’s look at some facts here:
- More than 130 people die every day from opioid-related drug overdose,
- One out of every 10 people become addicted after their first opioid prescription, and
- Approximately $78 billion is spent annually on prescription opioid misuse treatment
If you’re reading this and are unsure of what exactly an “opioid” is, no worries, we got you. An “opioid” includes, but is not limited to prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.
Currently, Montgomery County, Ohio leads the country as the largest opioid-center, with the highest opioid death-rate in the United States. As a practicing criminal defense attorney in Montgomery County, the majority of my clients suffer from the opioid epidemic, and I spend the majority of my time helping clients get out of jail, and instead get the necessary help they need, and placed into clinics, rather than letting them sit in a jail cell that does nothing for them other than spit them right back out onto the street, awaiting their eventual fate.
But how did this national crisis come about?
In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers, and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates. This subsequently led to widespread diversion and misuse of these medications before it became clear that these medications could be highly addictive. No shit. Ultimately, this led to the widespread diversion and misuse of these prescriptions, as the opioid overdose rates began to increase.
In 2017, over 47,000 Americans died as a result of an opioid overdose. That same year, an estimated 1.7 million people in the United States suffered from substance use disorders related to opioid use.
As this is still plaguing our nation, agencies such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and The National Institutes of Health (NIH) are still looking at ways in which to address the nationwide epidemic. But here’s where 21st century technology comes into play.
Just think if tech giants such as Facebook and Google could actually use its “industry-leading” authority—notice the quotation marks around Facebook—to help implement measures to address things that actually matter—not worrying about elections and other bullshit drama we have to hear about every day on national news.
But how? Data mapping. Based upon a person’s online behavior, the ability to identify individuals who are entering addiction, then help steer them toward preventative resources and treatment options at the point they are most receptive.
That’s the solution that one blockchain company, Public Democracy, believes can change the entire game.
The Public Democracy Opioid Project wants to use consumer data for actual good, not for compromising our personal security and information. It has demonstrated the power of its Values Data through nationally recognized projects that have supported veterans with severe PTSD; developed groundbreaking tools to help people at the earliest stages of opioid addiction; and informed investment strategies in low-income urban and rural communities nationwide through its partnership with the U.S. Census.
In its latest partnership with LiveRamp, others in the industry will soon be able to gain access to Public Democracy’s award-winning learning efforts and communications campaigns.
LiveRamp IdentityLink connects people, data, and devices across the digital and physical world, powering the people-based marketing revolution and allowing consumers to safely connect with the brands and products they love.
Last week, Public Democracy and LiveRamp(NYSE: RAMP), the trusted platform that makes data accessible and meaningful, announce a partnership that brings Public Democracy’s proprietary Values Data to market via the LiveRamp Data Store.
Values Data provides insight into the core values that motivate Americans to work together and make a difference, such as: justice, family, nurturing children, building community, supporting veterans, and joining others.
Public Democracy’s history of designing and executing campaigns for data mapping and intervention methodology has had a positive impact when it comes to spreading awareness about sex trafficking—where the company has identified hotels being used as brothels for sex trafficking, which girls were being sent where, and how targets were accessing the system.
“Public Democracy has taken a unique and powerful approach with its data by understanding people through their values and willingness to commit to real-world engagement,” said Rishabh Jain, Head of New Business and Innovation at LiveRamp.
#1—Data Mapping
‘Data mapping’ in its simplest form is the ability to map source data fields to their related target data fields. In other words, the ability to take any volume of data and convert it into a means of visually seeing it and understanding how it relates to one another.
The Opioid Project, by mapping consumer data, the company can actually map out opioid prescriptions, CDC death rates, and over 10,000 other indications by zip code and run correlation analysis against online behavior.
#2—Pattern Identification
By monitoring behavior patterns, it becomes possible for people entering addiction, determine contributing factors, and predict where overdose will likely spike.
#3—Targeted Intervention
Implementing a digital ad campaign of sorts could provide at-risk individuals with answer in the moment, confidential resources, and opportunities for treatment when they are most receptive to these interventions.
It’s time we own our data and use it for the proper measures, rather than politically-motivated reasons that lead to our country’s societal divide.
