The national push to increase electronic health record adoption by healthcare providers has made data increasingly available to inform public health decisions. Access to both reliable and expedient information shared between partners enables disease surveillance, contact tracing, emergency response, home visits, chronic disease interventions and other core functions. This data adds clarity to existing interventions, automates back-office functions and enables advanced analytics.

Still, much of the focus on healthcare recently has shifted to encompass more than just clinical interactions. As reimbursement models arc toward value-based care, provider organizations are looking at upstream factors to incorporate the social determinants of health into their clinical workflow.

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Baltimore has gone from temperatures near freezing in early May, to temperatures in the 90s.

"When we have multiple days of heat it is especially dangerous because there can be a cumulative effect of heat on the body," Baltimore City Health Department employee Jennifer Martin said.

She cautioned that it is important to give your body up to two weeks to acclimate itself to the warmer temperatures.

"So this week we are experiencing several days of heat in a row so that makes this a good time to get ready for summer," she noted, adding, "Extreme heat can be dangerous because for those who are elderly or have chronic medical condition, the heat can exasperate their medical condition so this is a good time to prepared and get ready for summer heat."

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By May 18, more than 12,500 Americans had died from an opioid overdose in 2017 alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's more than double the number of reported deaths from gun violence so far this year.

It's a staggering statistic, but opioid addiction is a problem without an easy, straightforward solution.

In order to address the crisis fully, steps need to be taken on both the supply and demand sides of the issue, says Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore City's health commissioner and former emergency room doctor. And, she points out, there are other societal factors to consider.

"When we look at the data of where it is that people are dying of overdoses, where the rates of addiction have climbed most precipitously, those areas are also the ones that are hardest hit by unemployment, by housing instability, by individuals in communities with uncertain futures," Wen says. "This is an overall societal problem that we need to address."

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It was fun. It made them feel good. It took away the pain.

Jim, Morgan, John, and Andrea never met. From different states, age groups, and backgrounds, it was unlikely they ever would. And yet they all were tempted by the same thing: opioids.

For Jim Stallings, and 91 Americans every day, it only took one more time.

Born and raised in Maryland, Stallings, his mother recalls, was funny and compassionate, always taking the side of the underdog. He loved fishing, grilling and tinkering with anything mechanical.

But in 1981, when he was 13, Stallings began taking prescription drugs at what were then called "fruit bowling" parties. These days they are known as "Skittles Parties," where teenagers raid their family medicine cabinets, dump whatever pills they find in a bowl and take them at random.

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