Smartphone App Can Detect Opioid Overdoses

Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a cellphone application that uses sonar to monitor a person’s breathing rate and sense when an opioid overdose has occurred.

The app, called Second Chance, can track breathing from up to three feet away and it accurately detects overdose-related symptoms about 90 percent of the time, according to research results published Jan. 9 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The researchers are applying for FDA approval and have plans to commercialize the technology through a UW spinoff called Sound Life Sciences.