The winners of the second phase of the Ohio Opioid Technology Challenge were announced on Sept. 1, with 12 organizations receiving $200,000 each to further their ideas.
The Challenge was the result of Ohio Governor John Kasich calling on Ohio Third Frontier last year to find scientific solutions and technology to fight the epidemic. The result is “a three-phase, prize-based competition to find technology-based solutions that address or improve opioid abuse prevention, treatment and overdose avoidance and response,” technologists are coming together to find solutions to battle the crisis.
“Ohio is dedicated to addressing the opioid epidemic,” said Ohio Third Frontier Commission Chair David Goodman. "Advancing innovation and technology is another way to ensure that no stone is left unturned. As the state and the nation continue to fight this battle, we are committed to getting new products to market and saving lives.”
Of a $20 million commitment, the Challenge is currently utilizing $8 million to fund in-competition innovation throughout its various phases. The Idea Phase ran from October to December 2017, "collected bold and creative ideas from hundreds of researchers, caregivers, service providers and citizens from across Ohio, the U.S. and the world."
“We were thrilled by the outpouring of ideas we received in the first phase of the Technology Challenge,” Goodman said. “We’re eager to move forward with this next step in developing new solutions and saving lives.”
It's the second phase of the competition, dubbed the "challenge" potion, from which the 12 winners were chosen. It initially received more than 50 submissions for technology-based applications to help battle the opioid crisis. Participating companies each applied their technologies to one of four focus areas: "diagnose," "prevent," "connect" and "protect."
Winning companies did not necessarily have to be Ohio-based. In fact, eight of the 12 winners were from cities across the country (and one from Canada). We highlight them below, with descriptions provided by a press release announcing the win.
- Apportis | Dublin | “Philip Payne and the Apportis team have created an integrated platform that allows patients to connect electronically to licensed health care professionals and opioid addiction resources, as a complement to medication-assisted therapies.”
- The University of Akron | “Abraham Joy and the team at the University of Akron proposed a solution to help first responders quickly identify the presence of an opioid on a person or surface, using a specially designed glove that will change color upon contact with an opioid. Based on the glove’s color, the first responder can then take appropriate secondary actions, helping to decrease stress while carrying out their duties and potentially save lives.”
- University Hospitals | Cleveland | “Eric Beck and the University Hospitals team are developing a computer-aided dispatch technology for opioid surveillance and tracking in real-time. The tool would identify patients at-risk for addiction or opioid use disorder, make referrals to non-pharmacologic resources, and identify opportunities for patient education (pre-discharge) on opioid use and disposal.”
- relink.org | Aurora |“Ray Dalton and the team at relink.org have developed a website to enable people struggling with addiction to find recovery service providers, ranging from detox to housing to employment. The team plans to continue to build out the technology, increase the number of providers in the database, increase awareness and utilization of the site, and conduct pilot studies to measure the impact of relink.org.”
The other winning companies include:
- Brave Technology Coop | Vancouver, Canada
- Dynamicare Health | Boston, Mass.
- Innovative Health Solutions | Versailles, Ind.
- Interasolutions | Orem, Utah
- OpiSafe | Denver, Colo.
- Prapela, Inc. | Concord, Mass.
- University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Vuronyx Technologies | Woburn, Mass.
The next phase of the competition, the "product" portion, will launch in late September and run until July 2019. Four recipients will receive a prize of $1 million.
