Mobile Application to Detect Overdoses

US scientists have developed an application dubbed «Second Chance» which is able to detect an opioid overdose. It measures a patient’s respiratory rate and compares the values obtained to those that occur...

US scientists have developed an application dubbed «Second Chance» which is able to detect an opioid overdose. It measures a patient’s respiratory rate and compares the values obtained to those that occur in the event of drug overdose.

In future, the creators of the project are planning to make the Second Chance integrable with third-party devices. If the data received by the device exceeds normal values, the application will automatically send a SOS signal to the user’s family or emergency services.

The Second Chance can also keep track of people’s movements. According to the developers, this feature was implemented to increase the security level.

The programme has already passed several clinical trials using various opioid analgesics. It correctly identified overdoses more than 90% of the time. The research was conducted in collaboration with Insite, an organization supervising legal use of drugs in North America, and other reputable institutions.