The Opioid Data Challenge
Challenge Description
Propose and test novel data sources and methodologies that can be combined with existing data to measure opioid overdoses in a Canadian community.
Who Should Participate?
- Students
- Researchers
- Health delivery orgs
- Public sector institutions
- Private sector orgs
- Harm reduction orgs
- General public
Opportunity
- Phase 1: Five awards of $10,000
- Phase 2: Two awards of $50,000
What’s Happening Now?
Congratulations to the winners of the Challenge: Brave Technology Coop and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health! Read more about their innovative solutions here.
Please note this Challenge is now closed.
The Challenge
Canada faces a growing opioid crisis. Securing data on opioid-related overdoses and harms is crucial to the design and delivery of effective interventions. And yet, timely and accurate data, particularly on non-fatal overdoses occurring in communities, remains limited.
MaRS seeks to engage innovative Canadians — people and organizations of all backgrounds and skills — to propose and test new data sets, sources and methodologies to bolster existing information and better measure opioid overdoses and harms in our communities.
What are the Data Gaps?
Getting information on opioid use and related overdoses is difficult. Public health organizations predominately rely on emergency or medical services information, hospitalization records and coroner and medical examiner reports. However, many opioid overdoses do not result in death, nor do they always involve an emergency or medical response. That means crucial information remains uncaptured.
Additionally, valuable secondary information related to an overdose (where and when it happened) is often missing. Such granular data is critical to the design, delivery and targeting of better interventions aimed at reducing opioid-related harms.
What Can You Do Right Now?
The winners of the Challenge were revealed on June 25 2019. Congratulations to Brave Technology Coop and Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health! Read more about their innovative solutions here.
Guidelines
- Category 1: Suspected non-fatal opioid overdoses where community supports were utilized (i.e. emergency or medical services were not involved)
- Category 2: Suspected non-fatal opioid overdoses where emergency or medical services were involved
- Category 3: Suspected fatal opioid overdoses
Challenge Structure
This challenge is divided into two phases: Phase 1 – Propose and Develop: Participants will identify and propose data sources and methodologies to measure opioid overdoses occurring in a Canadian community of their choice. In addition to providing the total number of non-fatal and/or fatal overdoses, innovators will provide data on specific factors of an overdose (such as location and date). Submissions will be evaluated by an external panel of expert judges. Up to five $10,000 awards will be given to each challenge finalist for use in the continued development of their concept during Phase 2. Phase 2 – Extension: Finalists will apply the data sources and/or methodology used in the previous phase to a different community in Canada to demonstrate wide-range applicability. A set of selection criteria will be provided to help guide innovators when choosing their second community. Submissions will be evaluated by an external panel of expert judges. Up to two $50,000 awards will be available for each challenge winner. The winners will also have the opportunity to scale and integrate their concepts into existing public health surveillance systems.Submission Format
Phase 1 - Propose and Develop - Submit your concept by completing:- The online submission form
- Two separate attachments, as indicated in the online submission form:
- Overdose Results Table
- Data Sources Document
Challenge Rules
Who can participate: You may only enter the Challenge if at the time of entry, you meet all of the below requirements:- You are a legal resident of Canada
- You are at least 18 years old or the age of majority in the province or territory where you reside
- You are not an employee of MaRS, or the Public Health Agency of Canada, or Statistics Canada, and you are not the immediate family member of any such employee
Disclaimers
The Challenge Rules are subject to change. Registered competitors will receive notification when changes are made, however, we highly encourage you to visit the Challenge site often to review updates. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Public Health Agency of Canada or Statistics Canada.
Timeline
Phase 1 Launch (13/09/2018)
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Phase 1 Submission Deadline (23/01/2019)
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Phase 1 Finalists Announced (13/03/2019)
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Phase 2 Launch (14/03/2019)
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Phase 2 Submission Deadline (06/06/2019)
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Online Finalist Showcase (20/06/2019)
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Almost one year after the launch of the Opioid Data Challenge, the top five finalists will be showcasing their submissions to a pan-Canadian audience in a unique online event.
Winners Announcement (27/06/2019)
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Read about the winning solutions under the “What’s Happening Now?” section of the homepage?
Resources
Useful Links
FAQ
You may only enter the Challenge if at the time of entry you meet all of the below requirements:
- You are a legal resident of Canada
- You are at least 18 years old or the age of majority in the province or territory where you reside
- You are not an employee of MaRS, or the Public Health Agency of Canada, and you are not the immediate family member of any such employee
The innovator will retain all intellectual property rights.
No. All submissions are kept private and no details are shared with other competitors.
Each defining factor (e.g. location) can be described by a list of parameters (e.g. geolocation, neighbourhood, at home vs. in public, etc.). To report on a defining factor, data must be collected for at least one parameter. A list of example parameters is found within the “Overdose Results Table” file, which can be downloaded from the Resources tab. Note, you can also come up with other parameters beyond the examples given in the aforementioned file.