The incidence of opioid overdose deaths soared at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and have continued to rise with lethal contaminants like Fentanyl now accounting for nearly two-thirds of them. Public bathrooms in coffee shops and fast-food restaurants have become ground zero for opioid overdoses. The Overdose Radar is the first-ever alarm system that detects signs of an opioid overdose and turns store managers into lifesaving first responders.

The incidence of opioid overdose deaths soared at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and have continued to rise with lethal contaminants like Fentanyl now accounting for nearly two-thirds of them. Public bathrooms in coffee shops and fast-food restaurants have become ground zero for opioid overdoses. In New York, over 50% of business managers have encountered drug use and 12% have dealt with an overdose. New York is also experiencing a shortage in first responders, increasing response times that delay the administration of the life-saving emergency rescue medicine, naloxone. Other technologies in the past really focused on motion, however we were able to look at the physiological parameters involving signs of an overdose to make sure we're extremely specific, avoiding false positives.

The Overdose Radar is the first alarm system that detects signs of an opioid overdose and turns store managers into lifesaving first responders. Once it is mounted to a restroom wall, the proprietary device will measure a person’s chest movement through radio waves to calculate breathing patterns. When it detects an overdose by registering a dangerously low respiration rate, an alert is sent to the business manager to act immediately to administer naloxone and call 911, saving time when every second is the difference between life and death. The design avoids data privacy issues, as it uses radio waves and does not require any data collection.

Death from opioid overdose occurs by opioid induced respiratory depression. Opioids depress the region of the brain responsible for regulating respiration which causes breathing to slow down, leading to hypoxia (lack of oxygen), hypercapnia (elevated CO2), and eventually cardiorespiratory arrest. The Overdose detector is the first-ever device specifically designed to detect signs of an opioid overdose and turns store managers into lifesaving first responders.

The device is a radar that measures chest movement to calculate breathing patterns. Upon detecting an overdose, the radar sends a signal to a companion device that will alert that someone in the bathroom is having an OD.The system operates at 60GHz, in the millimeter wave section of the electromagnetic spectrum.This is Safe, NON-IONISING radio waves, just like any other radio signal (Contains FCC ID: 2AQ6KA1001). Extremely low levels of energy are being used. (0.0058W). For reference, this is about 170 times less energy than what is emitted by a regular cell phone. All the data is processed internally in the device, nothing is transmitted or even stored, avoiding any concerns about data privacy.The radio signal between the radar and the alert companion device is on a private network at 427Mhx and does not pass through WIFI, cellular network or any other internet protocol. It will contain only anonymous data.

We have successfully concluded phase 3 of a clinical study and are now piloting the Overdose Radar in 9 public bathrooms in NYC locations with high incidence of overdoses, including the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn. We're expanding it to 26 public bathrooms until the end of the semester. The Overdose Radar’s intellectual property is available through the Creative Commons website so anyone, anywhere can replicate at no cost whatsoever. The Overdose Radar has the potential to change the trajectory of the opioid crisis. By transforming every coffee shop and fast-food employee into a first responder, we can significantly improve response times and survival rates across the country.

The incidence of opioid overdose deaths soared in the United States at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and have continued to rise with lethal contaminants like Fentanyl now accounting for nearly two-thirds of them. Public bathrooms in coffee shops and fast-food restaurants have become ground zero for opioid overdoses.