According to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, over 20 percent of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse them, leading to an epidemic of addiction. In 2017, over 1,000 people died from opioid overdosing in Virginia alone (including prescription opioids, fentanyl and heroin). A Virginia Department of Health report says that opioid-related deaths in Roanoke quadrupled between 2016 and 2017.

The 2019 Virginia Tech Roanoke Center Opioid Datathon is a competition organized in collaboration with the Urgent Love (www.urgentlove.org) Initiative of Southwest Virginia that will bring together bright, multi-discipline teams. Teams will analyze data sets and turn them into useful information that will support local initiatives and policies that are vital to managing the opioid crisis at the local/regional level.

Data stewards from health and other relevant agencies across the region will provide non-sensitive, de-identified data to this challenge for the teams to explore and use. Public and open data sets will also be used.

More event information and details here: http://bit.ly/vtdata19

Join our networking group to find your team! https://www.facebook.com/groups/VTData19/

The team registration deadline is February 1. Guests are welcome to register up until Feb. 16. Register here: http://bit.ly/vtdata19reg

We are looking forward to playing a part in the fight against opioids! #VTdata19
More information...

Location:	Virginia Tech Roanoke Center, 108 N Jefferson St., 7th floor, Roanoke VA 24016
Price:	Free
Contact:	David Conners dconners@vt.edu (540) 767-6145
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