OpiAID brings new tech to help 'neighbors' caught up in opioid crisis

David Reeser is one of the millions of Americans whose life has been changed by the ever-evolving, fast-growing epidemic of addiction. But his journey has taken him on an unusual road from challenge to opportunity.

It started “old school.”

“My father was a cigarette smoker. He smoked constantly,” said Reeser, a Pennsylvania native. “He died of lung cancer when I was 16. Before he passed away my mother started drinking heavily. I watched substance abuse almost ruin my family. Fortunately, Mom’s doing great now.” 

And so is Reeser, founder and CEO of a Wilmington startup that is bringing high-tech weapons to battle the “new school” epidemic that now represents one of the world’s biggest public health problems: opioid abuse.

Reeser’s company, OpiAID, provides clinicians and medication-assisted treatment (MAT) centers with real-time patient data transmitted from smart watches worn by people seeking freedom from substance dependence. MAT centers use medications such as methadone, naltrexone, or buprenorphine, in combination with counseling and behavioral therapies, to treat substance use disorders.

Reeser doesn’t use the term “patients,” even among people who understand that addiction is a disease – a biological challenge rather than a moral failure. Working in a world in which words matter, Reeser and his co-workers at OpiAID call the people they seek to help “neighbors.” And the company’s motto, and focus, is, “Love your neighbor.”

Don’t bother applying for a job at OpiAID if you don’t understand or embrace the concept, he says. It wouldn’t be a good fit. But he adds that does not impede the company’s ability to grow with like-minded employees.

OpiAID’s platform technology is based on mutual trust between the “neighbors” wearing the watches and their therapists/supporters using biometrics and behavioral insights to achieve successful interventions like preventing relapses and overdoses, and the deaths of neighbors.

The North Carolina Biotechnology Center awarded OpiAID a $150,000 Small Business Research Loan early in 2024. The funding is helping OpiAID deploy its platform.

In mid-June 2024, Bicycle Health, the nation’s largest provider of virtual opioid addiction treatment, joined OpiAID in a research pilot to document how wearables like OpiAID’s watches can support patients starting treatment with medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) in virtual settings.

“MOUD is the gold standard of care,” said Bicycle Health’s Chief Medical Officer Brian Clear, M.D. “A patient’s first two weeks of treatment are critical to maximize the likelihood that they will stay in treatment.

Piloting OpiAID

“We work closely with patients to monitor their response to treatment and intervene to adjust dosage and improve their response. This research will explore if wearables and biometrics can help us better understand a patient’s response to treatment, and ultimately empower us to use that data to personalize care and help patients find long-term recovery.”

The study observes select Bicycle Health patients who have opted in for monitoring during their first two weeks of treatment, which is often the most vulnerable and critical time in a recovery journey. Participants wear an OpiAID smartwatch to measure biometric data such as heart rate and movement. The researchers then analyze those indicators using OpiAID’s algorithms, pill bottle detectors from Medsense Health and self-reported patient data, to map patterns. Importantly, the transmitted data do not include “Big Brother” information such as GPS location spotting, because a certain amount of distance is key to OpiAID’s goal to maintain trust with participants.

“Bicycle Health’s virtual care model increases access to high-quality opioid use disorder care for people everywhere,” said Reeser when announcing the collaboration. “We’re excited to partner with them to discover if together we can optimize virtual care with data science and tools that have never before been used for this kind of care.

“It’s a simple idea: monitor the body’s response to treatment and use that data to help make better care decisions. But the impact for patients and virtual treatment could be huge.”

Importance of data, statistics

There is a large and growing market for the kind of interventions OpiAID is commercializing. The company says 25 million people in the U.S. are either using or abusing opioids, costing the nation more than $500 billion a year. Each opioid-related emergency room visit costs $10,000 to $20,000, representing 8% of hospitals’ total costs. 

Of those abusing opioids, 89% are not receiving treatment, 90% don’t have access to care and two-thirds of those who get treatment drop out within six months. A typical 28-day treatment program costs $40,000, despite a 98% failure rate.

OpiAID is also working with the state of Alaska, which is exploring the value of OpiAID technology to help the state’s limited number of clinicians provide service remotely to a population that often resides many miles away. 

The company also established a four-year contract with Coastal Horizons in the Wilmington area to distribute at least 750 devices to neighbors and their clinicians, who are likely to benefit from OpiAID’s platform. 

“Other places are serving our neighbors too,” said Reeser. “We’ll have several thousand just here in Wilmington in the next couple of years, without question.”

Across the nation, the numbers are numbing but describe the trend and feed the need for creative intervention.

For example:

• According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdoses dramatically increased over the last two decades, with deaths increasing more than 500% between 1999 and 2022. 
• More than 760,000 Americans have died since 1999 from a drug overdose. 
• OpiAID says someone in the U.S. overdoses every five minutes, which resulted in 112,000 deaths in 2023 alone.
• Nearly 75% of drug overdose deaths in 2020 involved an opioid.
• The Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimated 54.6 million Americans needed substance use disorder treatment in 2022, but only 13.1 million people with a substance use disorder that year received treatment.

“We’re trying to address the fact that clinicians lack timely data,” said Kyle VanZandt, a former OpiAID advisor who joined Reeser’s team full-time in March 2024 as vice president of government partnerships. 

“We’re also driven by the recognition that people need purpose and hope,” added Reeser. “They’re always going to need both.” He says he found both when he pivoted from a career in radiology into business development.

“I did radiology for a number of years,” he said. “A lot of MRI, fluoroscopy, X-ray in Reading and Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Then I went into business development. I started a consulting business. And I said to my wife, ‘We could live wherever we want. Let’s look.’ She agreed.”

He said they determined that they wanted to live somewhere near an ocean with easy access to an airport. They visited numerous locations, including Los Angeles and the Tampa Bay area of Florida before booking a long weekend in 2016 to Wilmington, N.C. It was love at first flight.

They made the move, and Reeser pursued his passion for entrepreneurship coupled with substance abuse therapy. “Wilmington is a beautiful coastal town,” he said, “but when we moved here, I learned that some 11.6% of our workforce was using opiates.” Fertile territory for his entrepreneurial ambition. He established OpiAID in 2018.

Building on a solid foundation

“It’s been a great experience working with David and his OpiAID team,” said Randall Johnson, executive director of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s Southeastern Office, who has worked with OpiAID since its founding. “They’ve built a solid foundation from numerous grants and investments--including as a Southeastern Region Finalist in the 2022 NC BIOTECH Venture Challenge. And now they’re proving their concept and thriving.”  

Johnson’s colleague, Erin Kaltenbrun, Ph.D., director of investments for NCBiotech's emerging company development group, agreed. “From early collaborations with UNC Wilmington to successes in landing Small Business Innovation Research grants and other funding, OpiAID is now establishing significant pilot projects and fine-tuning its platform as it pursues clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.” 

Reeser noted that clinicians anywhere can access OpiAID to explore the possibility of incorporating its unique platform into their treatment regimen. People dealing with opioid addiction can also call local clinicians and ask if they have incorporated OpiAID technology into their practice.

“If they don’t, they can contact their local treatment center and ask that clinic to reach out to us. We have an entry form on our website for clinicians.”