Rob is referring to the opioid crisis. Each year in the United States, opioid use disorder (OUD) costs the country over $140 billion in hospitalizations, medical costs, criminal justice costs, and loss of productivity. This is on top of the devastating figure of 70,000 lives lost each year.
Eshelman Innovation Venture Studio (formerly First In Venture Studio) has teamed up with High Alpha Innovation and the Mountain Area Health Education Center (MAHEC) to develop digital solutions to combat OUD. The two most viable ideas were presented February 10th, 2023, at Pitch Day by two teams made up of representatives from all three organizations.
The first team to pitch focused on early intervention in the use disorder cycle. The team painted a picture of a patient, Ben, experiencing an overdose. When first responders arrive, they reverse the overdose with Narcan, but there is no specific protocol—unlike with a heart attack or stroke, for instance—and Ben does not get the follow-up care he needs. He is given a pamphlet with some phone numbers to call for support services, but the outreach is entirely on him.
Support teams exist already—they’re called Post Overdose Response Teams (PORT)—and they’re shown to be effective in guiding patients into treatment and recovery. The problem is these teams across the country work in silos and use patchworks of software to track patients and their needs. The proposed solution is a platform to capture patient data and quickly assess potential needs at the point of first intervention. With this solution, Ben is not left on his own after his overdose. Instead, he is connected with a PORT and given the resources he needs to begin, and stay with, recovery.
The second team to pitch focused on the patient’s long road to recovery. They introduced us to a hypothetical patient, Travis, who has been working on his recovery for a while. Travis has been seeing providers, adhering to the treatment protocol, and working with peers in the community to keep on his path. But Travis is facing the stigma of having suffered OUD and it is difficult for him to find employment because of the gap in his resume or his background check coming back with a felony conviction. He is striking out in the job search, and it may just be the thing that derails his recovery.
The proposed solution is a platform to reward the hard work of OUD recovery and to show that hard work to potential employers. Those like Travis can build a “Recovery Resume,” validated and verified by the professionals they are working with such as doctors, pharmacists, and social workers. This resume gives Travis the opportunity to tell his story of recovery and to show the work he’s done in his journey. An experienced member on the platform could provide (paid) peer coaching and support to new members, eventually creating a pool of highly vetted people in recovery, a valuable source of reliable talent for local employers.
Dr. Shuchin Shukla is an Addiction Medicine Family Physician at MAHEC who worked with FIVS and High Alpha throughout the process. “I work with vulnerable members of our community . . . and this is hard, emotional work,” he emphasizes. “Applying the tools of startup creation and bringing new perspectives to this complex problem has given me and my colleagues hope that creative solutions are out there—we need the right partners at the table, and that’s what we are doing through the Venture Studio process”
After hearing the pitches, Eshelman Innovation Venture Studio will now begin the process of working with investors to determine if either proposal or both proposals will be launched as startups. Regardless of which idea comes to fruition, it will be a small victory in the ongoing battle against the opioid epidemic.
