HHS code-a-thon aims to prevent opioid overdoses, death

HHS is fighting the opioid crisis with data crunching. Started by HHS Chief Technology Officer Bruce Greenstein, the code-a-thon brought information technology professionals together to develop an impactful approach to reducing opioid overdoses and deaths.

While this isn’t the first code-a-thon hosted by HHS, this gathering is unique in its approach to include other agencies and their data. The influx of new data coming in from different perspectives hopes to improve efforts in fighting the current epidemic the nation finds itself in.

“It’s a really tangible way to demonstrate value from data,” said HHS Chief Data Officer Mona Siddiqui, MD, MPH. “The solutions that come out of [the code-a-thon] are going to be really tangible proof of what can happen when you bring a whole set of data assets to bear on one specific problem.”