I-Corps: PlusOne: Whole Home Non-Contact Breathing Monitor to Prevent Overdose Death

University Of Utah, Salt Lake City UT

Investigators

Abstract

A patient taking a prescription opioid pain reliever, while sleeping, can have ones' breathing rate slow to a dangerous level and then stop. The drug overdose problem has become an epidemic with 40,000 U.S. deaths annually, five times more deadly than twenty years ago, and now is the leading cause of accidental death in the U.S. This project proposes to monitor people at risk of prescription drug overdose in their home using the PlusOne monitor, a wireless network of sensors deployed in a home that collect and process radio channel data in order to continuously estimate breathing rate. The sensors are noncontact and always on, and work wherever the person is in his or her home. If a person is "still" and the breathing rate is dangerously low, the system alerts a caretaker by text or call, or automatically calls 911. Although prescription drug overdose deaths happen at a higher rate than motor vehicle deaths in the US, no safety systems have been developed to reduce the overdose death rate. If successful, this commercial system could dramatically reduce the death rate. Beyond the prescription drug safety market, this I-Corps team believes a noncontact breathing monitoring system has application in personal health monitoring, baby monitoring, and search and rescue. This team hypothesizes that drug rehabilitation centers will value the improved safety that the PlusOne monitor provides and will pay to deploy it in the homes of their patients when they are released. While other products exist to monitor breathing rate, they require the person to be physically connected to, or within a short distance of the device. The PlusOne system is a network that monitors the radio wave propagation channel between each pair of deployed sensors, forming a mesh that fully covers a home. No other product has the capability to be always on and cover an entire home. In this project the team will perform customer segment validation to determine how to successfully bring this safety product to market; (2) further develop a prototype for customer and partner demonstrations; and (3) perform further validation in human subjects studies. If successful, the team will position the technology for investment, future regulatory approval, and success in the market, and in so doing, be able to provide a safety system for people who are in greatest danger of a prescription opioid overdose.