How Alabama’s data sharing approach can help others tackle public health crises

Like many U.S. states, Alabama has grappled with a decadeslong opioid use disorder as drug-related overdoses escalate, straining public resources for years. But driving Alabama’s efforts to curb the opioid crisis is the state’s approach to data sharing across public and private stakeholders. 

Since 2018, state agencies and private entities have contributed to a statewide central data repository that aims to turn data into actionable insights that inform state leaders’ policy and programming to prevent and mitigate opioid use disorders and overdoses. The repository was created under the Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council, established in 2017, and last year marked the first time since its establishment that data showed “a notable decline in substance-related overdose deaths,” according to a 2025 report from the Alabama Opioid Overdose and Addiction Council. 

Indeed, data showed a 30% decrease in substance-related overdose deaths from April 2024 to April 2025, demonstrating that “a coordinated, data-driven approach at the local level can make a meaningful difference in reducing drug overdoses,” the report stated. Data insights from the central repository helped local officials more strategically deploy naloxone distribution, coordinate first responder operations and community outreach in high-risk neighborhoods through data mapping, according to the report. 

When it comes to public health data management, “there’s certainly an appetite for bringing in different types of data” as “everyone understands the field itself is moving toward this more holistic picture of what constitutes health,” said Margaret Arnesen, senior officer at The Pew Charitable Trusts. 

In fact, a new research brief from the nonprofit underscores how Alabama’s efforts to join data sources and capabilities across the state can help strengthen leaders’ attempts to curb opioid-related crises. The brief, for example, highlights how an ethical and responsible approach to data collaboration between the public and private sectors can advance public health solutions. 

“Certainly, a lot of data collection tends to be siloed because it's driven by program funding. Different areas of public health get grants or funds to work on a particular problem, [which makes] it harder to kind of share that information with other program areas,” Arnesen said.

One way Alabama officials chipped away at siloed practices and culture among agencies was by partnering with the University of Alabama’s Institute of Data and Analytics to help maintain the central data repository. 

Indeed, state officials told Pew researchers their agencies were more willing to share their data with a “neutral third party,” Arnesen said.

Agency leaders may be hesitant to share their data with departments they compete with for influence and funding, according to the report. Arnesen also pointed to data privacy and security concerns among agencies as a barrier to breaking down siloes within government, as well as institutional restrictions, like policies and laws that stipulate how an agency can disclose their data with other entities, if at all. 

A third party vendor can serve as a neutralizing force to help, for example, dispel territorial disputes over data ownership, Arnesen said. Third party partners, like a university or a research institution, are also more likely to have resources that enable data collection, analysis or cleansing that government agencies lack, she added. 

Alabama is far from the only state turning to external partners to boost their data capabilities. In the past few years, states have increasingly turned to organizations like higher education institutions “as resources, particularly for public health, get a little tighter” to “help them do more with less,” Arnesen said. 

To further build confidence in the data repository, Alabama officials required participating data contributors to sign a shared memorandum of understanding that ensures agencies conduct data operations under the same rules, according to the report. 

But it’s critical to recognize that some organizations require additional protections due to the sensitive data they manage, the report found. Alabama married these opposing priorities by allowing contributing agencies to create individualized data sharing agreements that adhere to their specific legal and privacy requirements, Arnesen said. 

Practicing flexibility in data sharing practices and policies is “another way to generate trust and buy-in [by making] an agency feel like their data is protected,” she said. 

Alabama’s opioid council also includes participating data partners in the repository’s governance committee, a move that helps incentivize participation in the data sharing program by strengthening agencies’ trust in the system, she said. On the committee, for example, agency leaders are included in decision-making for pursuing additional data sources or vetoing the use of their department’s data for certain projects. 

Another strategy that Alabama adopted was eliminating potential barriers for organizations to share their data. The report found that agencies are able to submit data to the repository in whatever format is convenient to them, as having to cleanse or standardize their own data before sharing it could deter an agency from participating in the repository. 

Such efforts have helped the central data repository grow from Alabama's law enforcement agency and its public health and mental health departments, before expanding to include other sources, such as poison control and insurers, according to the report. 

Over the last decade, the data participants have shared with the repository is helping inform responses to the opioid crisis, as well as evaluate the impact of interventions with more accuracy and efficiency thanks to Alabama’s commitment to encouraging fair and responsible data sharing among stakeholders, Arnesen said. 

Alabama’s efforts could “really resonate with other governments who are looking to better utilize sources of data that government’s already receiving to deal with a variety of public health concerns,” she said.