Adherence Monitor for Substance Use Disorder Treatment

Project Summary The focus of the present SBIR program is to determine the feasibility of a new noninvasivepoint of care testing device for patients undergoing treatment for substance use disorderThe new device will be capable of monitoring the progress and verifying adherence with patient treatment regimen by detecting the presenceand levelof a compounded adherence marker released in the urineproviding for the first time a device capable of at site monitoring of treatment adherence for treatment outcome in clinical trials and patient treatment programsOur program to develop this new point of care approach uses surface enhanced Raman spectroscopySERSfor detecting and quantifying the medication adherence tracerutilizing the Companyandapos s unique nanoparticle surface coating chemistry to detect the adherence biomarker in a patientandapos s urine sampleA significant advantage of our surface enhanced Raman technique on a properly prepared nanoparticle surfacerelying on the uniqueness of the molecular vibrational signature for differentiation and identification of the adherence biomarkers present in urineis that it requires no sample preparation or chemical manipulation to detect the biomarker in the urine sample Project Narrative Our program will provide a point of care device capable of monitoring patient adherence to treatment regimen for substance use disorder patientsThe device can immediately discern treatment adherencepositive or negativeto a prescribed medication protocol at siteThe availability of quantitative evaluation of adherence at the point of care and immediate feedback to the patient can be used in the form of instant reward and further treatment options Such a new technological approach would be readily useable at the point of care by staff for patients in substance use disorder treatment programsoutreach workerssocial service workersand drug advisors in various clinical settingse gmobile medical vansrural and urban community clinics