Development of an interactive dashboard for gun violence pattern analysis and intervention design at the local level

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Gun violence remains a concerning and persistent issue in our country. Novel dashboards may integrate and summarize important clinical and non-clinical data that can inform targeted interventions to address the underlying causes of gun violence. Methods Data from various clinical and non-clinical sources were sourced, cleaned, and integrated into a customizable dashboard that summarizes and provides insight into the underlying factors that impact local gun violence episodes. Results The dashboards contained data from 7786 encounters and 1152 distinct patients from our Emergency Department’s Trauma Registry with various patterns noted by the team. A multidisciplinary executive team, including subject matter experts in community-based interventions, epidemiology, and social sciences, was formed to design targeted interventions based on these observations. Conclusion Targeted interventions to reduce gun violence require a multimodal data sourcing and standardization approach, the inclusion of neighborhood-level data, and a dedicated multidisciplinary team to act on the generated insights.