Demand Reduction Smart Tool for Analysis and Research(STAR)

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Project Summary/Abstract In 2013, CICAD (Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Committee) convened a group of international experts to develop a Demand Reduction Information Framework (DRIF) for the design of public strategies, policies, and programs in demand reduction. The goal of this SBIR Innovation is to build upon the DRIF by creating a smart online, interactive, visual analytic dashboard (STAR) to contextualize core indicators that are critical to the design of public strategies, policies, and programs and to inform policy and program managers’ decision-making. STAR integrates NIDA’s key findings from substance abuse prevention and treatment research for the design of public health strategies, policies, and programs to mitigate the damaging consequences of substance abuse. While DRIF lays the foundation for data-driven demand reduction policy, program, and practice, decision makers still face major challenges in turning complex and often fragmented data into useable information. First, it is difficult to determine the quality of data; “garbage in, garbage out.” Second, no matter how feature-rich the visual presentation software, the information is not useful without business context. Third, there is a dependency on data analysts and IT personnel to unlock insights from available data. STAR will address all three challenges by empowering decision makers and managers to visually analyze the key indicators defined by DRIF in real time.