Using a smartphone app to intervene before relapse into alcohol abuse: preliminary results

ACHESS is a mobile phone-based relapse-prevention system that offers support to alcohol dependent people when and wherever it is needed. Developed at the Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies (CHESS), of which NIATx is a part, the ACHESS smart phone app is now being studied in a randomized clinical trial.

CHESS Researcher Andrew Isham presented some initial findings on the study at the 2011 Medicine 2.0 Congress last September. Click here to read a summary of his presentation.

Interested in using ACHESS? Click here for more information on using ACHESS through the CHESS Health Education Consortium.

Process Improvement and Technology

Process improvement increases efficiency, and so does technology. As NIATx Director Dave Gustafson pointed out in his January 23 blog post, communications technology is playing a bigger role in efforts to increase efficiency and serve customers better. Technology can help close the gap between the 20 million people in the United States who need treatment for a substance use disorder and the three to four million who actually receive it.

Kentucky River Community Care is one organization that is using both process improvement and technology to meet customer needs. This organization serves eight counties in eastern Kentucky, and was a grantee in the first NIATx initiative, Paths to Recovery. “Technology and process improvement go hand in hand in helping us adapt to the rapidly changing behavioral healthcare environment,” says KRCC Director Mike Kadish, who credits NIATx with helping his organization create a culture of change. Read more about KRCC’s innovations in the February 6, 2012, issue of Mental Health Weekly.