Addiction counselor creates app to thwart overdoses

In his dozen years using heroin, Lucien Izraylov took pains to avoid detection. He was ashamed of what he was doing, so he almost always shot up alone.

It’s a risky behavior that can lead to a fatal overdose, especially as drugs are commonly tainted with the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl. But Izraylov, who says he now has years of sobriety behind him, thinks he has figured out a way to help.

He has smartphone created a app called Harmredux that will connect drug users with volunteers who will meet them, overdose-reversing medication in hand, to make sure they survive their use. The app recently became available for Android and Apple phones.

“Not everyone will use it, but it’s nice to have an option,” he said. “It’s a foolproof way to stay alive.”

Izraylov, 41, joins other tinkerers who have tried to attack overdoses with technology. One app, released in 2016 but apparently no longer available, alerted an emergency contact if users didn’t push a button on their smartphones once a timer elapsed.

Another one, still in development, turns a smartphone’s microphone and speaker into a mini-sonar system that can detect a person’s breathing. If respiration appears to slow significantly or stop altogether – hallmarks of an opioid overdose – the phone alerts emergency responders.

Izraylov, who runs an Evanston, Ill.-based addiction and mental health counseling service, isn’t taking such a high-tech approach. His app simply connects drug users with volunteers via phone, email or text chat, and they make arrangements on where to meet (Izraylov said about 90 minutes lead time is necessary).

Izraylov said the app is set up to work like this:

Trained volunteers, who generally will work in pairs, observe the drug consumption, and if the person appears to be in distress – something that could happen within minutes – they use the overdose-stopping medication naloxone and call 911. If the person seems to be OK after using, the volunteers go on their way, though they can also make a referral if the person wants treatment.

The service is free and users can remain anonymous, Izraylov said. Volunteers have no role in the person acquiring or using the drugs.

Chicago Tribune/tns Lucien Izraylov, an addiction counselor and former heroin user, holds his phone with an open app he created in his office in Evanston on Thursday.