Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Data And Grants topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
OAA updates SUDO analytics platform, seeks $6 million for expansion and recommends $35.2M in grants
Summary
Staff updated the board on the statewide SUDO analytics dashboard and said the proposed biennial budget includes $6 million to expand data and predictive analytics; staff also recommended $35.2 million in statewide grant awards and reported recent settlement receipts including an estimated $15.7M from Albertsons.
The Opioid Abatement Authority briefed the board on the status of SUDO, the state’s substance use disorder analytics platform, and discussed related budget and grant recommendations.
Executive Director Tony McDowell said SUDO—developed through legislative language and multiple contractors—has a public dashboard that went live last fall with a public release in February. The platform aggregates data from previously siloed agencies into a dashboard with visualizations and query tools; certain restricted datasets require need-to-know access and logging to protect personally identifiable information. McDowell said the Virginia Commonwealth University Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences has helped correct data issues but that restrictions imposed by data stewards (including the Virginia Department of Health and the all-payer claims database steward) limit localities’ ability to use some restricted fields at the community level.
“We have an additional $6 million in the budget…that will allow the system to become even more to capture more data and to provide predictive analytics,” McDowell said, describing language in the proposed FY27–FY28 budget funded from opioid settlement monies to enhance SUDO’s capabilities.
On grants and settlements, Treasurer's staff reported a newly announced Albertsons settlement estimated to yield $15.7 million for Virginia, of which $9.1 million is expected to come to OAA and be paid over nine years. Staff said total estimated payments to the authority are now roughly $629 million, with approximately $213.9 million deposited to date. The authority reported a beginning fund balance of $126.1 million, fiscal‑year‑to‑date inflows of $36.7 million, outflows of $41.6 million and cash on hand of about $121.3 million.
Staff presented recommended awards for the upcoming cycle: $4.4 million in individual distributions covering 78 city and county applications (61 renewals and 17 new projects), and cooperative project recommendations totaling about $29.2 million. Combined with unrestricted funds, staff said the statewide recommended award total is $35.2 million, with 70% of recommended funding concentrated in regions 1 and 3. Staff noted cities and counties have five years to use individual distribution funds, and unclaimed funds revert to the statewide pool starting in 2028.
Why it matters: The SUDO platform is intended to give local officials and the public better, centralized access to substance-use indicators and to support data-driven grant making. Additional funding for SUDO would expand data ingestion and predictive features; the recommended grant packages represent a material distribution of settlement funds to local projects.
What’s next: Staff will continue to refine restricted-data access with contributing agencies, finance staff will move forward on the budget adopted by the board, and the Grants Committee will reconvene in August to consider state-agency awards.
