Earlier this year at the Health 2.0 WinterTech Conference, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and Catalyst @ Health 2.0 launched the RWJF Opioid Challenge, an initiative aimed at bringing together healthcare and technology innovators to solve a growing epidemic of addiction in the United States. A panel of 19 judges evaluated 97 initial submissions based on innovation, scalability, and overall design and intuitiveness of the solution, resulting in five semifinalists.
- Resilience IQ (ResQ)
- Hey, Charlie
- Luceo/Canary App
- Sober Grid
- HashTag
Preparation for Phase 2 of the competition is underway with final submissions due June 21. The top three semi-finalist submissions will be named finalists and invited to pitch at Health 2.0’s 12th Annual Fall Conference, held this year from September 16-19, where the winner will be announced. The top cash prize is $50,000.
Medgadget had a chance to speak with Paul Glimcher, CEO of one of the semifinalists, Data Cubed, developers of the ResQ mobile app. Data Cubed is a life sciences technology company that began as an academic partnership with New York University. The company’s digital health tools highlight the potential for video game technology to achieve high levels of patient engagement leading to better clinical outcomes.
ResQ Mobile App
As we learned from Data Cubed CEO Paul Glimcher, ResQ takes a number of design and engagement queues from video game design concepts and principles. To begin, patients customize an avatar which represents their in-app character. Regular engagement comes in the form of games and surveys which reward currency, or points, and represent progress towards short and long-term goals.
Vivid, user-friendly interfaces provide visibility to both immediate goals as well as long term objectives. Built-in incentives help drive completion and create opportunities to drive timely action.
Beyond patient engagement, ResQ also creates opportunities for a patient’s support network of family and friends to receive updates and notifications about their loved one’s progress through the program. Instigating this support network to intervene when risk for relapse is greatest is a perfect example of how ResQ combines both quantitative and qualitative approaches to tackling the complex challenge of opioid addiction.
ResQ is Using Games to Fight Opioid Addiction [Medgadget]