HOPE - Harnessing Optimization for Personalized Evaluation in addiction treatment with artificial intelligence and data science

Background

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Every year in Germany, hundreds of thousands of people with addiction problems like drugs, alcohol, social media addictions need professional help. However, addiction is a socially stigmatized topic, which means that these people often don't take advantage of therapy services until it's too late. This is especially true and dangerous for people who use illegalized substances. And when people with addiction problems seek help and treatment, discontinuation often has negative consequences on several levels, including health, legal and social dimensions.

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The appointments’ density at counseling centers and the waiting lists for out- and inpatient treatment are long. Nevertheless, many help seekers do not attend appointments, miss admissions that have been planned for a long time and drop out of treatment early. This problem is amplified by the fact that not every therapy facility can provide all possible treatment approaches, so that help seekers often do not get help they need.

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This problem can be minimized by data- and AI-driven personalized treatment that incorporates analysis of complex background and treatment history of patients.

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Project Goal

 

Therapieverbund Ludwigsmühle and MI4People join the forces and launch a research project to develop an AI- and data-driven system that will:

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• Analyze the patient’s data and support therapists in creation of treatment plans with highest chances of success

• Support help seekers by helping them finding therapy facilities that provide treatments that are best fitting to their needs

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Expected Impact

 

We expect that the planned system will help therapy facilities:

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• making access to suitable help for help seeker easier and earlier

• minimizing dropouts

• relieving the burden on therapy counsellors and practitioners

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