mHealth App for Opioid Abuse Prevention

Client

Prevention Strategies

Industry

Health, Wellness & Fitness

Services

Software Development

Tech

AWS (CloudFront, RDS, ElasticSearch, EC2), Moodle, Batch, Google Analytics

Challenge

In the face of the national opioid crisis that annually affects over 10 million people in the US, Prevention Strategies, an affiliate of a public research university in the US, has embarked on an important mission to curb prescription opioid abuse among workers in industries with high injury rates. Backed by a grant from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), they wanted to develop a tailored mobile health (mHealth) app that would spearhead evidence-based, technology-aided intervention programs. Their goal was to reduce the risk of prescription opioid misuse and overuse among high-risk workers through education and health monitoring tools. They turned to ITRex for first-class expertise in mHealth app development.

Our task was to:

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Conduct full-scale business analysis, including identifying users and requirements, building a design concept, creating tech vision, preparing estimates

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Develop an MVP for the mHealth app

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Provide UI design services

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Develop, test, and deploy the final solution

Solution

Native mobile apps for Android and iOS allow Prevention Strategies administrators and managers from other companies to share educational courses among mobile users, monitor their progress, and conduct surveys, all while educating users about opioid use and facilitating their health tracking. The mHealth app was built on the Moodle platform as a progressive web application (PWA) with custom plugins wrapped to native mobile app containers for iOS and Android platforms and using AWS infrastructure. Their key functionality included:

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Account creation and streamlined onboarding

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Access to a helpline

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Access to courses

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Tools to track pain intensity, symptoms, and the number of opioid-free days

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Surveys (before, immediately post, and 30 days following course completion)

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Push notifications

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Fully-functional web interface for administrators, including individual profiles, user management, and the capacity to upload and delete SCORM files

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User activity analytics

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Refined access management

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Spanish language localization

Impact

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Enhanced awareness & education: By delivering accessible educational courses and incorporating tools for health tracking, our mHealth app fosters an informed user base to reduce the incidence of opioid abuse

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Improved intervention and support: With round-the-clock helpline access and timely push notifications, users are provided continual support and resources, improving individual recovery rates