Waiting for Help: How addiction treatment could go digital

By Aminu Mohammed

Millions of people across the globe are struggling with various forms of addiction, including drug and alcohol abuse. This addiction has become a serious disease that keeps them living in a bubble, struggling to navigate their lives. 

Addiction is a chronic disease that can negatively affect mental health, relationships, and careers. In some instances, people battling addiction are afraid to seek help due to the fear of stigmatization and alienation from the community, which can lead to loss of life.

It is a condition that causes an individual to feel an urge to do something or carry out an activity, even if it causes harm. People can be addicted to substances that harm health, such as alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine. Similarly, they can be addicted to non-substances such as gambling, pornography, and video games. 

Addiction constitutes a major health challenge and burden across the globe. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 3 million people die as a result of addiction every year. Most of these deaths are caused by alcohol addiction. 

The report also revealed that approximately 209 million individuals worldwide live with alcohol dependence. This worrying trend has become a global burden, with a low percentage of people battling alcohol addiction having access to treatment.

Seeking help and medical treatment is one of the most courageous steps a person battling addiction can take, but it can seem like an insurmountable challenge when faced with financial constraints and stigmatisation.

Many people struggling with addiction find it difficult to access the necessary support and start treatment due to waiting times for specialized treatment, administrative bottlenecks, paucity of staff, and bed shortages. During this critical phase, the patient may be unwilling to wait any longer and may return to substance abuse.

Barriers to Addiction Treatment in Germany

The addiction treatment system in Germany is currently overwhelmed, with therapists overloaded with cases. Many patients suffer from drug addiction, and while the standard treatment procedure is largely successful, some patients do not respond well. While not all treatments are the same, it would be beneficial for therapists to have a lighter workload, as this would enable them to do their job more easily and increase the success rate for patients.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people in Germany require support and care for substance addiction, including alcohol and other drugs. Unfortunately, many of these people do not receive the necessary help, which could be due to the large number of people on waiting lists, inadequate personalized services and counselling centers, and a high number of patients dropping out of treatment. 

Hope Project's algorithm Brings Succor to Patients 

The Hope Project uses artificial intelligence and data sets to make addiction treatment more effective and tailored to the individual, helping therapists and counsellors in Germany analyze patient data, provide appropriate treatment and recommend suitable clinics for those in urgent need of support and care.

The project aims to provide access to support for those in need and reduce the number of people dropping out of treatment. This would significantly reduce therapists' workloads and ensure that addiction treatment is effective.

The algorithm developed by the Hope Project helps predict whether a patient will drop out of a treatment program or relapse. In other words, the indicators provide a clue that patients will not have problems with addiction afterwards, meaning they can be discharged.

Similarly, the algorithm can identify these risk factors based on the patient's health data, providing information to the therapists so they can adjust the patient's treatment accordingly. Knowing the risk of a patient dropping out of treatment enables therapists to focus on those who are making good progress.

The digital tool is highly accurate in predicting whether a patient will drop out or successfully complete the treatment program. The project aims to use artificial intelligence to increase the success rate of addiction treatment and make therapists' work easier and more effective. The goal is to determine which indicators could help identify patients at risk of dropping out of addiction treatment. This helps therapists and doctors provide specialized treatment to patients.

Speaking extensively about the project, Dr Adjmal Sarwary, a project manager at the Hope Project of the MI4People, explained that the development of the algorithm was for the purpose of supporting doctors and therapists to be more effective, rather than replacing them. According to Sarwary, the device had been deployed in two German clinics with a performance rate of 90 percent. However, he admitted that the tool cannot be made available to the public due to government guidelines.

„The project is all about trying to get patient data and information about their homes, as well as the current status of the program. This information is then fed into an AI algorithm, which can identify the indicators that essentially act as protective factors. This means that the likelihood of them having successful treatment or dropping out is very high, and of course there is always a balance between these two factors, which is what the program is all about.“

„You can't really talk about the performance rate of the algorithm because we can't just open it up to anyone to use, given that data protection laws in Germany are very strict about that.“

Hope Project Partners Two Clinics for Addiction Treatment 

The Hope project is currently collaborating with two clinics, including the Ludwig Muhle clinic in Germany. The algorithm has been deployed to these clinics and trained using 3,000–4,000 patient records. Thus, the dataset is not large enough to enable broader claims, but the high success rate and predictability are based on it. The program has been running for two and a half years and focuses on allocating resources while identifying effective treatments for patients.

Way Forward

Nevertheless, in the long term, it is expected that the use of digital tools in the treatment of substance abuse victims will evolve into highly personalized care that complements the work of medical professionals. This will involve the adoption of smart digital devices to support victims of substance addiction, as well as practical rules to ensure data privacy.

Best regards,

MI4People