The APP Against Overdoses
The opioid overdose epidemic is one of the worst health crises in the United States. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, every day, more than 130 people in the United States die from an opioid overdose.
One of the most accurate ways to understand whether or not someone is overdosing is to check his or her breathing rate, breathing slowly or stopping breathing is a significant symptom of an overdose. If symptoms are caught in time, with the proper first-aid, it is possible to save addicts from dying of an opioid overdose.
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a smartphone app called Second Chance to detect overdoses. The app uses sonar to monitor a person’s breathing rate and movement. Sarah McQuate, an author at University of Washington News, explains “The Second Chance app sends inaudible sound waves from the phone to people’s chests and then monitors the way the sound waves return to the phone to look for specific breathing patterns”. The app can track a person’s breathing from up to 3 feet away.
The researchers tested the app in an approved supervised injection facility in Vancouver. “Our algorithm identified 19 of 20 simulated overdose events,” wrote lead authors of the study in Science Translational Medicine. It also identified breathing problems caused by opioids accurately 90% of the time.
Currently, the developers are applying to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for approval, so the app is still experimental. “This is a very early conceptual model that has the opportunity for growth and the opportunity to make an impact years down the line,” said Fred Muench, CEO of the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, “I wouldn’t be willing to endorse anything until it was tested in the real world.”