SafeUseNow℠ Wins 2014 Knight News Challenge: Health Award; Project to Help Reduce Prescription Drug Abuse in the United States
ENCINITAS, Calif. (PRWEB) January 17, 2014
SafeUseNow℠ will use data to identify incidents of prescription drug abuse with $208,000 in funding, as a winner of the Knight News Challenge: Health.
The challenge, launched in August 2013 by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, sought ideas that harness the power of data and information for the health of communities. Winners were announced at the Clinton Foundation 2014 Health Matters Conference in La Quinta, California.
“We are thrilled with our selection as a Knight News Challenge winner,” said Patrick J. Burns, President of Principled Strategies, the Encinitas, California-based developer of SafeUseNow. “The prescription drug abuse rate in our Medicaid population is 10 times the rate in the privately insured population. This grant funds delivery of a powerful, validated prescription drug abuse solution to a progressive Medicaid health plan that is ready and eager to aggressively tackle this problem.”
“SafeUseNow uses data to address a pervasive problem,” said Michael Maness, Knight Foundation vice president of journalism and media innovation. “Prescription drug abuse is an issue that communities can engage around, revealing the impact that data can have on their lives.”