Using Geospatial Data to Identify Gaps in Substance Use Disorder Treatment

Geospatial data analyses can identify gaps in substance use disorder treatment, thus facilitating closing those gaps. This session will feature two examples.

The first presentation will cover the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General’s (DHHS OIG) Behavioral Health—Medication-Assisted Treatment Viewer (BH-MAT) ― a public tool with which users can identify potential gaps in MAT services. BH-MAT allows for unique geospatial analysis at the federal, state, and county level using data such as changes in the death rates from opioid overdose between 2016 and 2020. Other analysis that users can explore include comparing locations of high death rates with treatment facility locations and identifying areas with more than a one-hour drive to access methadone. A team from this office will present the system and how to use it.

The second presentation will describe how researchers in Kentucky and the MITRE Corporation used prescription drug monitoring program and census data to identify geospatial parameters and related socioeconomic disparities that form barriers to buprenorphine (the drug used in office-based MAT) treatment access. They will share their findings showing spatial and socioeconomic differences in treatment access by rural vs. urban and low vs. high income zip codes. They will describe how their simulation tool lets them do a “what-if” analysis, by placing patients and providers in different regions and studying the effect on the output or outcome (participation and adherence to office-based MAT).