Experimental smartphone app detects drug overdose and calls emergency services

American researchers are working on a smartphone app that can detect when a drug user takes an overdose. In such an emergency, the app immediately warns the emergency services.

When a drug user overdoses, it is associated with a very specific and predictable breathing pattern, one of the researchers told The Verge. Second Chances, as the app in development is called, uses sonar technology to detect those changes in the pattern. Activated shortly before drug intake, the app sends sound waves to the user’s chest, then analyzes the sound that is reflected back. According to the researchers, this works accurately up to a distance of one meter.

In an emergency, Second Chances automatically contacts a doctor, friend, family member, or someone else who can be on the scene quickly to administer naloxone, an opioid antidote. To guarantee the privacy of the user, all data is encrypted. “No use is made of the camera or speech, we only use the reflection of the sonar sound”, explains one of the doctors involved.

To refine the app’s algorithm, Second Chance was tested on 194 test subjects at a clinic in Vancouver. The app recognized 96 percent of overdoses where breathing had stopped for ten seconds or less, and 87 percent of cases where breathing had slowed significantly. The Second Chance team is currently working on further fine-tuning the app to reduce the chance of false positive diagnoses. After that, the application will be submitted for approval to the US Food and Drug Administration, which monitors the quality of food and medicines.