Public Health Dashboards in Overdose Prevention: Rhode Island’s Framework for Public Health Data Literacy, Partnerships, and Action (Preprint)

As the field of public health rises to the demands of real-time surveillance and rapid data-sharing needs in a post-pandemic world, it is time to examine our frameworks for the dissemination and accessibility of such data. Distinct challenges exist when working to develop a shared public health language and narratives based on data. It requires that we assess our understanding of public health data literacy, revisit our approach to communication and engagement, and continuously evaluate our impact and relevance. Key stakeholders and co-creators are critical to this process and include people with lived experience, community organizations, governmental partners, and research institutions. In this Viewpoint Article, we define the approach and tools we used, assessed, and adapted across three unique overdose data dashboard projects. We are calling this model the Rhode Island Framework for Public Health Data Literacy, Partnerships, and Action. This framework was developed to guide the development and improvement of data dashboards in a manner that was driven by collaboration and iteration, and leveraged strong partnerships across community members, state agencies, and an academic research team. We will highlight the key tools and approaches that make this framework accessible and highly engaging and allow developers and stakeholders to self-assess their goals for their data dashboards and evaluate engagement with these tools by their desired audiences.