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By Vedika Chaudhari
Artificial Intelligence in healthcare may sound like science fiction, but the reality is closer than we imagine. AI is being used to confront the opioid epidemic by analyzing data and creating models to derive insights about areas at risk, best intervention measures and more.
Egen, a Software company in Pleasanton, is doing just that. According to an article published on their website, “Using data and analytics to confront the opioid epidemic”, experts at Egen have created an opioid epidemic solution that will use data to target the opioid epidemic. Their solution will be a data dashboard combining visualizations and predictive analysis to monitor the epidemic. Some of its features include identifying demographics affected by the epidemic and supporting interventions, as well as assessing the efficiency of the interventions.
Through this dashboard’s comprehensive insights, public health experts as well as policymakers can implement solutions to better assist patients.
However, Egen isn’t the only player using data and AI insights in their approach to fight the opioid epidemic.
Researchers from Penn State, in the Presidential Public Impact Research Award (PPIRA) Program, have also analyzed economic consequences of the opioid epidemic through the lens of artificial intelligence. They aim to predict high risk areas and identify underlying issues associated with opioid use disorder (“Harnessing Data and Powerful Collaboration to Understand and Combat the Opioid Crisis”).
Using data insights and artificial intelligence in the opioid epidemic is relatively new technology, but we are at the start of an exciting era. Solutions like these can be made widely and publicly available, ensuring collaboration between public health experts and data scientists to develop new and targeted solutions to the opioid crisis.
This article was written as part of a program to educate youth and others about Alameda County’s opioid crisis, prevention and treatment options. The program is funded by the Alameda County Behavioral Health and the grant is administered by Three Valleys Community Foundation.
