The OD Pulse
About the OD Pulse Dashboard
The OD Pulse tracks drug overdose deaths between 1999 and February 2026. This National Institutes of Health-funded project brings together multiple overdose death data sources to answer urgent questions about how the overdose crisis is changing across time, place and drug type.
The OD Index compares counties and identifies communities with similar overdose and population profiles. Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the OD Dashboards integrate multiple data sources to show how the overdose crisis is changing across geography and drug type over time.
Led by principal investigator Lori A. Post, PhD, director of the Institute for Public Health and Medicine’s Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the OD Pulse is designed to help public health agencies, clinicians, policymakers and communities respond more quickly and precisely to a constantly evolving crisis.
When lives are on the line, waiting a year for answers is not an option.”
OD Dashboards:
The National Overdose Death (OD) Pulse is the premier real-time dashboard for tracking national, regional and state drug overdose trends with unprecedented timeliness and precision.
The National Overdose Death (OD) Index is a companion to The OD Pulse. It combines overdose, demographic, economic, and community data to benchmark counties against state, regional, and national patterns and identify their closest digital twins.
OD Pulse Methodology
Overdose Velocity
The OD Pulse measures the monthly rate of change in drug-related fatalities to provide situational awareness for clinicians and policymakers.
Acceleration and Jerk Metrics
Unique surveillance metrics that identify where the overdose crisis is intensifying most rapidly, enabling more precise resource allocation than traditional annual reporting.
Real-Time Data Integration
By monitoring the "Pulse" of the crisis monthly, this tool bypasses the typical 12-month reporting lag found in federal datasets.
The Pulse: Monthly Newsletter Archive
The OD Pulse is now live and updated monthly as new data becomes available.
Latest Insight: The Deceleration That Refused to Die (July 2026)
Previous Monthly Reports:
- Boring Is Beautiful: Overdose Deaths Keep Falling! (June 2026)
- It’s Official: The Great Deceleration Continues… (May 2026)
- There Are No "Worst" States, Only Shifting Front Lines (April 2026)
- Overdose Deaths Rate Plateaus in the West as National Decline Rapidly Loses Momentum (March 2026)
- Overdose deaths rise in the west as national rates decline (February 2026)
- Historic Deceleration in Overdose Deaths Has Emerging Cracks (January 2026)
Project Leadership
Lori Ann Post, PhD
Principal Investigator
Spencer D. Cox, MBA
Geospatial (GIS) Specialist
Shivangi Sharma, MS
Research Data Analyst