Alphabet's 'Verily' Plans to Use Tech To Fight The Opioid Crisis

'Verily, Alphabet's life science division, is building a tech-focused rehab campus in Dayton, Ohio to combat the opioid crisis,' reports CNBC.
Verily will join two health networks, Kettering Health Network and Premier Health, to create a nonprofit named OneFifteen. Alexandria Real Estate Equities will design and develop the campus, which will offer both inpatient and outpatient services. There is no single solution to treating substance abuse, with strategies spanning from intensive rehabilitation programs to drop-in meetings. Verily hopes to get a better understanding of what works and what doesn't work in helping people get and stay sober....

Initially, Verily will focus on understanding what works in the clinic and then track patient behavior when they get out to see what sticks, Danielle Schlosser, senior clinical scientist of behavioral health at Verily, said in an interview. Verily will use a 'variety of means' to track what works, she said, adding that patients would have to consent to being monitored... OneFifteen CEO Marti Taylor said 'Because we will have facilities, an entire ecosystem and data, we'll be able to take a more holistic understanding of a person's health both inside and outside as we follow them long-term.'
Verily's blog points out that Americans under 50 years old are more likely to die from unintentional overdoses than any other cause, and that two-thirds of those deaths involve an opioid. 'In the face of one of the greatest public health crises the U.S. has seen, we feel compelled to act,' they write, saying their company is 'focused on making health information useful so people can live healthier lives.'
Their blog says their team recognized 'the absence of high quality information to guide individuals, communities, and legislators' for picking effective recovery treatements. 'Leaning into our capabilities of building health platforms, we are setting out to create a 'learning health system' that aims to address this critical information gap in addiction medicine.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.