| NSF Org: |
TI Translational Impacts |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | December 11, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | December 11, 2016 |
| Award Number: | 1648034 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Jesus Soriano Molla
jsoriano@nsf.gov (703)292-7795 TI Translational Impacts TIP Directorate for Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships |
| Start Date: | December 15, 2016 |
| End Date: | November 30, 2017 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $225,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $225,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
3300 WASHTENAW AVE ANN ARBOR MI US 48104-5184 (734)730-3747 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
330 East Liberty St. Ann Arbor MI US 48104-2274 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | SBIR Phase I |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.084 |
ABSTRACT
The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to improve access to high-quality, responsive, and evidence-based treatments for risky users of alcohol and other drugs. Current standards of care are cost-prohibitive, time-intensive and overly reliant on community support groups lacking a scientific basis or a mechanism for accountability. The research proposed here will add to an interactive online platform providing tools and treatment for individuals seeking to change their relationship to substances. The technological innovation supported by this research will result in a graphical meter that provides users of the platform with a simple-to-interpret interface. This tool is designed to strengthen motivation, enhance capacity for self-assessment, and allow for the better allocation of care provision resources. This development will give the proposing organization a major competitive advantage as it contributes to the growing field of digitally-provided behavioral healthcare products. Employers, insurers, and consumers have communicated a clear demand for new methods of treating individuals with substance use disorders, and this technology will equip the proposing organization to meet that demand.
The proposed project addresses the "black box" of recovery from risky use of alcohol and other drugs. Ample research demonstrates that behavioral interventions can be effective ways to mitigate risk for individuals with unhealthy use of alcohol and other drugs. Monitoring, assessing, and quantifying that recovery, however, remains out of reach for behavioral interventions delivered in the current standard-of-care. Instead of present-moment substance use recovery, the typical measure remains previous substance consumption. By statistically analyzing a range of available data from users of an online substance use recovery platform, this research will identify the data most correlated with successful recovery from substance use. Regression modeling and bivariate correlations will explore the relationships between different data within the platform and several validated outcome measures already integrated into the intervention. This research will use discourse analysis and natural language processing to identify and categorize user-submitted content to identify linguistic elements related to substance use recovery or risk of relapse. The principal outcome will be a holistic measure of recovery from substance use aggregating multiple instruments and domains of substance health. It will be developed into a graphical interface that communicates to both users and other behavioral healthcare stakeholders in-the-moment recovery from risky substance use.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The genesis of Workit Care™, a digital addiction treatment program, was motivated by the inadequacy of existing solutions for individuals with risky and/or unhealthy substance use behaviors, which have several negative economic, social, and health implications. Workit Care™ delivers a comprehensive and confidential program that provides 24/7 access to evidence-based recovery curriculum, peer recovery coaching, and counseling with a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW). The patient-centered design facilitates self-directed addictive behavior goal setting, ranging from moderation to abstinence.
This new approach to treating addiction demands a new metric for recovery: Workit Health’s “Thrive-Meter.” The Thrive-Meter aggregates diverse data -- frequency and duration of engagement with the Workit Care™ platform, content analysis and qualitative data analysis of user-supplied textual narratives, and self-reports and check-ins -- to develop a snapshot-in-time of a user’s “substance wellness.” This tool provides reflective and predictive value: users are encouraged to reflect on their progress towards their addictive behavior goals and are simultaneously presented with potential risks for goal regression. Collectively, these insights enable users to understand the triggers for their addictive behaviors and strengthens their recovery skills. Additionally, the Thrive-Meter operates as a treatment optimization tool, facilitating the Workit Health team’s ability to precisely match content and support resources to fit each user’s unique needs.
In Phase I, Workit Health initially utilized NSF funding to assess the feasibility of using existing data sources from the Workit Care™ program, to establish and implement holistic wellness measures, and to analyze user trends in program curriculum and counselor chats. In the latter end of the funding award period, Workit Health utilized the qualitative data analysis to generate observable indicators and define data sources per each observable indicator. At this point, Workit Health then worked to attribute scores to each observable indicator item in order to arrive at a cumulative Thrive-Meter score. Additionally, the team at Workit Health drafted digital prototypes for the user-facing Thrive-Meter interface that align with the empowering and patient-centered design approach to which the rest of the Workit Care™ program adheres.
The progress made on this project by Workit Health emphasizes the importance of proactive patient engagement and the feasibility of engaging and empowering users through a digitally delivered solution. Further, the work conducted thus far on the Thrive-Meter demonstrates the feasibility of developing and delivering a low-cost, technology augmented solution that still features one-to-one support and the expertise of professionals specifically in the field of addiction treatment. Development of this novel metric goes beyond transcending the bounds of science and technology: it has enduring social implications for not only the individuals who struggle with addiction, but also their friends, families, and employers.
Development of the Thrive-Meter increased the number of positions in Michigan to conduct biotechnology research, and contributed to the Workit Health team’s ability to teach and disseminate its findings, such was done by Principal Investigator Lisa McLaughlin at the University of Michigan’s School of Information and School of Public Health. Additionally, this project raised awareness to which scales are needed for measurement in the field, and allowed for the opportunity for graduate student researchers to gain exposure to this concept.
Last Modified: 12/01/2017
Modified by: Lisa B Mclaughlin
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