Overview:

Improving quality, access and outcomes is a fundamental goal of any substance abuse program. Understanding the areas that can most effectively be targeted for improvement, how these areas can be targeted, and setting the right benchmarks for improvement, requires a fundamental and thorough understanding of program performance.
Gaining insight into the intricacies of program performance, however, is particularly challenging in substance abuse care where the most readily available data supports only basic performance measures.

In this discussion, the presenters will focus on how the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Abuse Services (BSAS) developed a rich, comprehensive data landscape that promotes the creation of metrics to provide insight into the performance of the entire program (identifying needed services, funding allocation, workforce development, client services, measuring outcomes, etc.). These comprehensive, multi-dimensional datasets and corresponding metrics have enabled BSAS to work towards building a system that is based on real client need and provide a strong foundation upon which other initiatives can be launched. The presenters will also discuss strategies that were employed to enrich the primary data collection process, and the importance of linking primary data with other, relevant data sources.

Presenters:

Ms. Carolyn A. Castro-Donlan, Director, Office of Youth & Young Adult Services
Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Bureau of Substance Abuse Services
Ms. Castro-Donlan is the Director of the Office for Youth and Young Adult Services for the Massachusetts Bureau of Substance Abuse Services where she leads and develops innovative, youth-centric substance abuse programs focused on improving outcomes. She has over twenty years of both public and private experience in health and human services, including experience in program development, fundraising, grant and contract negotiation, media relations, and strategic community mobilization and education. Ms. Castro-Donlan has served as Deputy Director for the Massachusetts Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, and has held other key leadership positions in the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. She serves as Vice President for the New England School of Addiction Studies, holds a Masters degree in Psychology from Harvard University, a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Addictions Studies from the University of Florida, and was previously a licensed Practical Nurse. Carolyn is currently a Doctoral candidate for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.

Mr. Craig Johnson, Chief Technology Officer
ProVentive, Inc.
Mr. Johnson is co-founder of ProVentive and brings more than twenty years of technology innovation experience in government and private-sector healthcare. After working for NASA/JPL's Deep Spacecraft Network developing artificial intelligence and mathematical programming systems, he migrated to healthcare where he has held senior and executive IT positions in hospital and payer organizations as well as led several large initiatives for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As Chief Information Officer at Neighborhood Health Plan, he pioneered the use of CRM software to improve member service, provider relations and care management receiving CIO Magazine's CIO100 award for innovation in CRM. He now leads ProVentive's product development and delivery. Mr. Johnson holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a B.S. in Mathematics from Middlebury College. He is a former member of Massachusetts Health Data Consortium's Board of Directors and served as Co-chair of the CIO Forum.

Dates & Instructions:

Dates: The presentation will be repeated on 2 Fridays, March 7 and 14 @ 11:00am-11:45am Eastern Time
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