Canadian mHealth App Takes Aim at Preventing Deadly Drug Overdoses

Healthcare providers in Canada are testing out a unique mHealth app designed to reduce overdose deaths among active drug users.

NorWest Community Health Centres in northwestern Ontario will be the first provider in Canada’s most populous province to pilot the Lifeguard app. Developed by Lifeguard Digital Health, the app is activated by the user before he or she uses a drug, and includes an alarm that grows louder from one to five minutes after activation. If the user fails to cut off the alarm, a text-to-voice call is sent to emergency medical dispatchers advising them of a potential overdose.

The connected health service takes aim at an issue that killed more than 2,000 people in Ontario in 2020, an increase of almost 60 percent over the previous year. The Ontario roll-out, coordinated by the District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board, is funded in part by a one-time grant from Ontario’s Ministry of Health through the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

"With our commitment to primary health care as well as prevention, the Lifeguard App provides an innovative solution to the ongoing overdose crisis,” NorWest CEO Juanita Lawson said in a press release. “By incorporating the Lifeguard App into the services offered in our region, we are confident we can not only save lives, but nurture safer, healthier communities.”

Vancouver-based Lifeguard Digital Health debuted the mHealth app in May 2020 in British Columbia through the Provincial Health Services Authority and regional healthcare providers. Officials there say it has been used by more than 5,000 people and has helped save at least 17 lives.

Aside from the self-activated alarm, the app also offers links to a suicide hotline, a crisis hotline and the 811 hotline for medical advice. In addition, it offers instructions on CPR and Naloxone treatment for those who might be with the user before help is summoned.

The app relies heavily on the user for activation, giving him or her the power to choose whether to access help when using drugs. Telehealth advocates say this type of platform helps put the user in charge of healthcare management decisions and could go a long way toward developing pathways toward substance abuse treatment.

The platform offers another tool to take on a fast growing substance abuse epidemic, which is claiming lives in record numbers not only in Canada and the US but throughout the world.