The HopeBand shines LED light through the wearer’s skin, which detects the changes in light absorption that monitor blood oxygen level. If it is too low, the wristband will alarm and send a text message with the wearer’s location, the Pittsburgh Business Times reported.
The students developed the wristband after it was sponsored by pharmaceutical consulting firm Pinney Associated, based in Bethesda, Md. The HopeBand prototype won third place in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Opioid Challenge held during the Health 2.0 Conference last September in Santa Clara, Calif.
The HopeBand has not been tested on people, but there are plans to give out the bracelet through needle-exchange programs.
More articles on opioids:
9,000 pediatric opioid overdose deaths since 1999, study finds
Patients receiving naloxone for opioid overdoses can be safely discharged after 1 hour of observation
Opioid tapering guidelines ‘aggressive and unrealistic,’ experts write
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