Dramatic advances in life-saving technology often meet decades of delay before word of its availability makes it to behavioral professionals. Device manufacturers typically showcase their new wares in technical or medical rather than behavioral circles. Dissemination channels often flow from hospital or physician to behavioral professional, if at all. This article outlines a new wearable device being tested to prevent opioid overdose deaths using a harm reduction model. Much has been written about the telehealth response to the opioid national emergency, such as how updating telehealth policies can be helpful, including using telephone telehealth for opioid addiction.
While this technology is not ready for purchase, this article is offered by Telehealth.org as yet another example of how healthcare technology evolves and can assist clients and patients being seen by behavioral professionals. It is intended to inform the reader that such devices are being researched and suggest that behavioral professionals consider the possibility of a near future when using such devices would be advisable clinically. Technology-informed graduate program faculty members may also use such information to explain how early career clinicians can best think about technology interventions, lest they be swayed into believing the false promises of ill-conceived or prematurely released apps and associated devices.
Wearable Naloxone Opioid Overdose Device Using a Harm Reduction Model
The opioid overdose wearable device was recently described in a journal article titled, Closed-Loop Wearable Naloxone Injector System, published by Scientific Reports, a division of Nature Portfolio. The device described in the article releases opioid overdose medication when worn by a patient experiencing an opioid overdose. According to the report, researchers from the University of Washington based their study on the following premises:
- Opioid…