In the crisis of an opioid overdose, every minute counts. As respiration declines and blood pressure drops, medical care is needed — and needed fast.
Overdose patients are often revived with naloxone, the anti-overdose drug that can rapidly pull people back to consciousness. What if there was an app that could summon a person trained to use the life-saving drug and the naloxone itself?
That’s the goal of OD Help, a smartphone app developed by Pwrdby, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based development company. The app took first place and the $40,000 prize in the 2016 Naloxone App Competition hosted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
In a world with technological solutions to nearly everything — apps that can summon goods and services with a tap of a screen, and a gadget for every inconvenience — can we innovate our way out of the heroin and opioid addiction epidemic?
Pwrdby CEO Jared Sheehan said he believes it certainly can help.
“We believe everyone deserves a second chance,” he said. Mr. Sheehan, an Ohio native and Miami University graduate, cited Ohio’s place at the center of the country’s opioid epidemic.
The numbers are familiar but sobering. The Ohio Department of Health recorded 3,050 fatal drug overdoses statewide in 2015, the highest number on record. In 2014, the state surpassed all others for number of fatal overdoses, besting more populous states like California and New York, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
OD Help addresses two key problems for people at risk of overdose, Mr. Sheehan said: limited access to naloxone and risk of overdosing alone, away from people who can call for help. If a friend or family member encounters a person who has overdosed but there is no naloxone in the house, the rescuer can use the app to send out a request to other app users who do carry it.
Like calling a ride from the ride-hailing services Uber or Lyft, a naloxone carrier who is nearby can respond and arrive on scene with the drug. The app also offers an instructional video to walk rescuers through the administration process and call 911.
The app also has a feature that can be paired with medical devices that monitor breathing for people at-risk of overdosing alone. If breathing rates drop too much, the app sets off an alarm and the person must turn off the alarm or the app calls for medical attention.
“It’s a community issue,” Mr. Sheehan said of the overdose rates. “It’s not just that you’ll be able to find a technology that it’ll solve it, we recognize that.” But, he sees it benefiting rural communities where emergency personnel are farther away, or as a tool for emergency doctors and other personnel who frequently interact with addicts at risk of overdosing to start a discussion about safety.
Technology can be a complement but not a replacement for solving the root cause of social problems, said Jesse Fox, an assistant professor at Ohio State University who studies technology and social impact.
“We’re technological optimists, that some technology will be able to solve a problem,” she said. ”There is never going to be a quick fix, just because I can make it digital.”
Different technologies attract and are effective for different people, Ms. Fox said. Fitness trackers and dieting apps work great for some people and not at all for others.
“Don't assume it's going to be a life saving miracle, but embrace it as, ‘This might be one thing that might help me,’ she said about technologies meant to help a societal problem. ”If it does help you, great, if it doesn't, find another path. It could be another technology, or it could be something else.”
Looking forward
Mr. Sheehan likens OD Help to the app PulsePoint, which allows users to see active emergency situations in their area and if they are trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, be notified when someone nearby needs help and they are closer than first responders. But Mr. Sheehan said his team isn’t aware of anyone else offering a similar app for drug overdoses.
OD Help is still a ways away from popping up on smart phones, Mr. Sheehan said. It’s the prototype phase and requires further research. For the challenge.gov competition, participants did not to venture into field research with the target population, Mr. Sheehan said. To bring OD Help to market, he said the team needs to further work with experts to determine if the app is meeting the correct needs of the community.
That’s important, said John Clapp, professor and associate dean for research in the College of Social Work at OSU, who studies substance abuse, particularly related to heavy drinking, and solutions to the problems that result from it.
Developers who don’t consult with experts in fields they expect to use the product come up with something that is “is close but not what we need,” he said. “The best technology will be developed in concert with the end user, the professionals who work with those people, the technology companies and the scientists who help develop those interventions.”
One barrier for OD Help is building a network of naloxone-trained citizens to be on-call for such emergencies. In Lucas County, almost 500 people have been trained and received doses of the drug from the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department, department spokesman Shannon Lands said.
Private pharmacies are also offering naloxone over the counter. Kroger began selling it at pharmacies in its Ohio stores in February, 2016. CVS drugstores began selling naloxone kits in March, 2016; a CVS spokesman declined to provide the number of naloxone kits distributed in Ohio in the last year, saying that the company does not share sales data on specific products.
But by partnering with the right agencies, Mr. Sheehan said he hopes the product can be another tool to curb overdoses.
“If we could shave off 10 minutes off the administration [time] from how it is being done today or capture 10 percent more of that population [at risk of overdosing], what’s the value of that to a community?” he said.
Contact Lauren Lindstrom at: llindstrom@theblade.com, 419-724-6154 or on Twitter @lelindstrom.
First Published March 6, 2017, 5:00 a.m.