UnityPhilly: Experiences with a Smartphone App that Facilitates Community Response to Opioid Overdoses

This case study presents the use of UnityPhilly, a community-based smartphone intervention that facilitates layperson response to opioid overdoses. Our analysis focuses the information needs of lay responders. In a Philadelphia neighborhood particularly hard hit by the opioid crisis, 112 participants received training on identifying and reversing an overdose with the drug naloxone, and installed the UnityPhilly app on their smartphone. Over the course of one year, participants used the app to report 291 observed overdoses to one another and EMS, and respond to the scene of 74 overdose incidents. Our case study uses thematic analysis of interviews and survey data collected throughout the community trial. Results indicate that basic functionality was easy to use for many, enabling active user engagement and indicating significant potential for this intervention. However, usability issues included communication and information features during incident response, which were not discoverable. Addressing usability issues and information needs could help lay responders as well as overdose victims.