A group of Birmingham students are looking to develop a wearable device that could detect opioid overdoses.
Twelve students — from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Ramsey, Carver and Woodlawn high schools — are developing OD Revive as part of Hardware Park’s spring 2024 NextGen cohort, according to a release.
Hardware Park, formed in 2017, is Birmingham's hub for physical product development and engineering education. Each year, the hub selects a group of students to collaborate on creating innovative devices. The cohort will work with Bessel, which provides assistance for medical device startups, and other medtech industry experts as they work on OD Revive.
This year’s product, OD Revive, will read specific vital signs to see if they drop below the threshold that would indicate an overdose. The wearable device would then alert the person’s emergency contacts and share his or her location, OD Revive CEO Kyle Berman said.
“You can think of OD Revive as ‘Life Alert’ for people who can’t push a button,” he said.
Between 2019 and 2022, Jefferson County’s overdose deaths nearly doubled and fentanyl-related overdose deaths increased by 275%, according to Jefferson County Department of Health Medical Director Dr. Darlene Traffanstedt.
Hardware Park’s Spring 2024 NextGen cohort:
- Kaleb Newton - Ramsay High School
- Amber Moore - Ramsay High School
- Daniel Dominguez - Carver High School
- Caren Smith - Woodlawn High School
- Bella Capaldo - UAB (biomedical engineering)
- Daegan Benjamin - UAB (biomedical engineering)
- Dexten Retchloff - UAB (biomedical engineering)
- Sree Nataraj - UAB (biomedical engineering)
- Ty Dailey - UAB (biomedical engineering)
- Isabella Tirelli Rebolho - UAB (biomedical engineering)
- Mo Overstreet - UAB (mechanical engineering)
- Dawson Culver - UAB (engineering design)
