Vancouver co-op develops tech to help prevent ODs

VANCOUVER — A Vancouver technology co-operative is gaining recognition for developing a mobile app and three other digital monitoring tools aimed at preventing overdoses, especially among drug users who are dying alone.

Brave Technology is the only Canadian participant among 12 companies awarded $200,000 in the Ohio Opioid Technology Challenge, and they are all now vying for a $1-million grant to come up with technical solutions to address the overdose crisis.

Oona Krieg, chief operating officer for Brave, said people would log on to the Be Safe app before using their drugs to connect with trained volunteer responders ready to step in with the overdose-reversing medication naloxone or call an ambulance.

“You’re connected to a community responder who will stay on the phone with you,” she said, adding a user would be asked a series of questions, including which drug they believe they’ll be using.

The next phase of testing the app, which has been in development for a year, is expected to begin in Vancouver next month.

Krieg said Be Safe, like the other tools under development, is intended to act as a form of digital supervision for people who use drugs alone.

“The idea is to end the isolation and to be able to respond to an overdose quicker than somebody else calling 911,” she said, adding the app would also enable people to make connections with responders and get information on clean needles, wound care, or a referral to treatment if the user is ready to take that step.

Another app being developed would allow members of the community to register to be trained as responders. Krieg said families of people who have died, those who have survived an overdose, and citizens looking to stem the crisis are taking action.

The BC Coroners Service said 88 per cent of the 878 overdose deaths between January and July occurred indoors, among people who used alone or were with someone who was unwilling or unable to call 911.