Wearable technology to detect opioid overdose

Background: Deaths involving heroin, morphine and cocaine were the highest on record in Northern Ireland in 2019. Figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) indicate that 191 people died were recorded as drug related deaths in 2019 with just over half (95) males aged 25-44 (NISRA, 2020).

Methods/Design: This feasibility study sought to work co-productively with opioid users, to test the practicality of wearing a device and to investigate whether the data captured on a Wearables device, designed to detect signs of a drug overdose, could be successfully transferred from the device to a backend cloud service. The study design encompassed the use of four focus groups in total. Two were conducted face-to-face in a prison setting with people in prison

Discussion: It was concluded by the vast majority of users that the benefits of such a wearables device significantly outweighed the risks. Service user views related to the size and flexibility of strap, the appearance of the device and the need for this to be discreet, perhaps resembling a small wristband and the importance of having an alarm to alert passers-by The study sought to assess whether the data (SPo2 and heart rate) recorded on the device could be successfully transferred from the device to a backend cloud service and was not testing the device in a real time overdose situation with individuals who had taken opioids the manual recording of SPo2 readings using the ScanWatch was not a significant issue. From the data obtained from the wearables devices, it was concluded that it was feasible to use a wearable device for monitoring opioid users’ biomarkers remotely. The remote data acquisition and transfer process would not be a barrier for future research.