Screenshot of the AlcoholMeasures landing page.
ARG received a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant sub-award in collaboration with BrightOutcome, an innovative software development company that focuses on creating applications to improve population health. This contract will see the research team through Phase II of a project that aims to enhance a previously developed multi-translated alcohol measures catalog, which featured Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages.
Personal profiles individualized to the user’s needs.
The current prototype contains 127 alcohol-specific and alcohol-related measures and 64 national or regional surveys. Enhancements in Phase II will include several new translations such as South and Southeast Asian languages, and Native American languages. Phase II will also see the development of an ability to administer the measures electronically through desktop and mobile devices. Electronic administration ensures people who are more easily reached via smartphone apps have greater access, increasing their participation in clinical trials and treatment protocols. In essence, these new features will serve as a one-stop-shop enabling the seamless process of measure selection, administration, scoring and reporting – all from one application.
“The second phase of development will include almost 1,000 measures translated into even more languages, ” says Thomas K. Greenfield, PhD, subcontract Principal Investigator and ARG’s Scientific Director. “It will also enable quick and effective alcohol screening to assess treatment needs across a wider population.”
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), 7.8% of all Americans over the age of 11 needed treatment for an alcohol problem yet the majority (87.4%) did not even perceive a need for treatment and therefore didn’t receive any.
“We truly enjoyed the experience of collaborating with the ARG team for the Phase I project and appreciated their expertise in alcohol research and their dedication and professionalism under the leadership of Drs. Greenfield and Zemore,” says DerShung Yang, PhD, Principal Investigator and BrightOutcome’s President. “We are excited about collaborating with ARG again for the Phase II project and expect to create a solution that will greatly facilitate the use of alcohol measures and surveys in the field of alcohol research, in particular involving minority populations.”
The application also comes with a tutorial that will provide a common tool researchers can use to communicate with each other and other experts about measure translations. The inclusion of an online research community further enables members to connect with colleagues and provide peer support through discussion forums. The project will run for two years through to 2018.
About BrightOutcome
BrightOutcome develops patient-centered healthcare applications designed to enhance lives and improve patient health outcomes. Their web apps and Healthcare IT solutions include stand-alone web portals, Web Services (WS) integration with EHR/EMR and legacy Health IT systems, and custom implementation projects.
About the SBIR Grant
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is a highly competitive program that encourages domestic small businesses to engage in Federal Research/Research and Development (R/R&D) that has the potential for commercialization. Through a competitive awards-based program, SBIR enables small businesses to explore their technological potential and provides the incentive to profit from its commercialization. By including qualified small businesses in the nation’s R&D arena, high-tech innovation is stimulated and the United States gains entrepreneurial spirit as it meets its specific research and development needs.
