Adoption of digital tools in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Region of the Americas - the Go.Data experience.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the growth of digital health tools. Although a number of different tools exist to support field data collection in the context of outbreak response, they have not been sufficient. This prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to collaborate with the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and GOARN partners to develop a comprehensive system, Go.Data. Go.Data, a digital tool for outbreak response has simplified how countries operationalize and monitor case and contact data. Since the start of the pandemic, WHO and GOARN partners have provided support to Go.Data projects in 65 countries and territories, yet the demand by countries to have documented success cases of Go.Data implementations continues to grow. This viewpoint documents the successful Go.Data implementation frameworks in two countries, Argentina and Guatemala and an academic institution, the University of Texas at Austin.

Development of a digital platform to improve community response to overdose and prevention among harm reduction organizations.

The overdose crisis in the USA remains a growing and urgent public health concern. Over 108,000 people died due to overdose during 2021. Fatal and non-fatal overdoses are under-reported in the USA due to current surveillance methods. Systemic gaps in overdose data limit the opportunity for data-driven prevention efforts and resource allocation. This study aims to improve overdose surveillance and community response through developing a digital platform for overdose reporting and response among harm reduction organizations. We used a community-engaged, user-center design research approach. We conducted qualitative interviews with N = 44 overdose stakeholders including people who use drugs and harm reductionists. Results highlighted the need for a unified, multilingual reporting system uniquely tailored for harm reduction organizations. Anonymity, data transparency, protection from legal repercussions, data accuracy, and community-branded marketing emerged as key themes for the overdose platform. Emergent themes included the need for real-time data in a dashboard designed for community response and tailored to first responders and harm reduction organizations. This formative study provides the groundwork for improving overdose surveillance and data-driven response through the development of an innovative overdose digital platform.