CapTech Teams Up with VA Governor's Office for Datathon to Combat Opioid Crisis

This year's Governor's Opioid Addiction Crisis Datathon (GOACD) will take place September 28 and 29 at the Library of Virginia. GOACD is a groundbreaking competition that will bring together multi-discipline teams comprised of individuals from government, higher education, private industry, and non-profits. The teams will transform new and existing datasets into actionable information that will support the goal of using data and analytics to stem the tide of the opioid crisis, reduce addiction harm, and save lives.

CapTech will serve as a supporter of the event that will include data stewards from health, public safety, and other agencies across federal, state, and local government and health systems. These organizations will provide existing and new non-sensitive de-identified data for the teams to explore and use during the Datathon. The teams will be encouraged to develop new insights and applications that will answer burning questions and address challenges that face government and community stakeholders. They will be judged on a combination of their impact, innovation, and approach.

CapTecher Pete Carr who will be serving as a judge for the competition, said, "It's great that state government looking to leverage tech and data to solve everyday problems as well as significant problems that this state is facing." He added, "I've worked for a number of state agencies in my career, and I am very impressed with how those organizations continue to evolve and leverage technology and data. It's noteworthy that we continue on this path and I hope this datathon will continue to evolve and help people in years to come."

The Governor's office released a formal press release on August 24th: https://governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/newsarticle?articleId=21019

To learn more about the event, check out: https://data.virginia.gov/datathon-2017/