EMS crews have saved 18 patients using Alberta’s overdose response app

The Digital Overdose Response Service app allows people who are using opioids alone to be monitored and have EMS respond if they become unconscious and need medical help.

Since launching in April 2021, the Digital Overdose Response Service (DORS) has been used dozens of times to prevent drug-poisoning deaths in Alberta.

The app allows people who are using drugs alone to be monitored and have EMS respond to their location if they become unconscious and need medical help.

“It’s very important to have something like this,” said Monty Ghosh, the addictions physician who helped create the app.

“We know that over 70 per cent of the population who is dying from drug-poisoning events are dying using alone by themselves.

“We know not everyone is accessing a supervised consumption site, which is a gold standard for dealing with overdose situations, drug-poisoning situations, and so having alternatives available to people is key.”

The idea for the app came from one of Ghosh’s patients. He lived in Grande Prairie and would often use alone, but when he did, he Facetimed with a friend in Edmonton who had his address and would call EMS if he needed help.

“They’d formulated a strategy to prevent themselves from having a bad outcome from a drug-poisoning event,” he said.

“Utilizing that idea, we tried to scale that provincially through a grant through Alberta Innovates and eventually through Health Canada and the Government of Alberta.”