An Innovative Tool for Firearm Data: Michigan’s Real-Time Dashboard
In an effort to enhance data accessibility for public health and safety officials, the University of Michigan Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention has introduced a groundbreaking tool. The Michigan Firearm Injury Near Real-Time data system (Mi-FINDS) is designed to provide critical, up-to-date information on firearm incidents across the state.
The Mi-FINDS dashboard, which is financially supported by both the institute and the state, allows the public to access data concerning firearm fatalities at both county and state levels. However, the system offers even more detailed information to authorized users, such as specific incident dates, demographics, and precise locations. This feature enables professionals to visualize data and analyze trends based on time and location.
Jason Goldstick, the institute’s director of statistics and methods, emphasized the importance of the dashboard, stating, “The idea is we want this data to be as useful as possible to the people who could use it. We would like to eliminate barriers to their work that timely data can help alleviate.”
The data for this initiative is sourced from the Medicolegal Death Investigation Log and county medical examiners. The team receives daily incident reports from over 47 counties, highlighting the significance of collaboration with medical examiners for the dashboard’s success. “This requires having partnerships with individual offices and asking them to share their data with us on mortality records, when they happened, where they happened,” Goldstick explained.
At present, firearm-related injury and death data is primarily obtained from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, this information is only available at the county level and is typically released 18 months post-incident.
Goldstick further noted the system’s potential impact on violence prevention efforts, stating, “We are doing this work to eliminate barriers that violence prevention workers have that data can address. And therefore, we want violence-prevention workers to use the system. We want their feedback, and we want to use that to improve the system.”
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