Over 107,000 overdose deaths occurred in the United States in 2021. The overdose crisis continues to worsen in Texas; however, significant gaps in overdose data exist limiting the ability of outreach organizations and public health officials to make data-driven decisions in response to the overdose public health emergency. This project has developed a digital platform, TxCOPE (Texans Connecting Overdose Prevention Efforts), to improve data-driven community overdose response efforts. TxCOPE collects data from the community and nontraditional overdose reporters which can be aggregated with traditional data sources, including EMS and medical examiner data, to provide data dashboards with closer to real-time data and also collects data on non-fatal overdose incidents. TxCOPE enables organizations to see overdose hotspots, trends, and send alerts in their community. This project uses community-engaged research methods to inform technology development and statewide implementation.
TxCOPE received an international award from Google Cloud in 2021 for innovation and social impact potential. This project is supported by the Texas Targeted Opioid Response, a public health initiative operated by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission through federal funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant award number 1H79TI083288.