Altere
Altere is a wearable band and companion app that reimagines addiction recovery through discreet, continuous care. By delivering methadone and monitoring the user’s health, it reduces the need for daily clinic visits and addresses a critical gap in long-term recovery support.
addiction recovery reimagined.
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According to the national institute on drug abuse (NIDA), 81,806 people died from opioid overdose in 2022.
Methadone clinics help about 400,000 people a year struggling with opioid use disorder, according to Columbia Medical Center.
But these people have to go to the clinic everyday, and some states only have a handful of clinics. Wyoming has zero opioid treatment programs cleared to give Methadone. -
Bring addiction recovery to you via Altere’s wearable pod and band. In conjunction with the app, Altere has three key goals:
01 tackle addiction recovery from every angle
02 bring access to resources for those who need it
03 reduce the number of opioid overdoses
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By using technology that already exists in insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors, Altere monitors the users blood-methadone content and delivers the exact doses needed overtime to reduce the urge to use narcotics.
The Tech:
Altere provides multiple subcutaneous injections throughout the day that are monitored via a photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor.
The PPG sensor surveys the blood-methadone content and if it is below the therapeutic range, it delivers an small dose to keep it within the programmed range.
Altere can hold 5-7 days worth of a methadone dose, so the user will have to return to the clinic, but only once a week.
The Altere Difference
Unlike other recovery processes, Altere is dedicated to providing a total care system for it’s users. As shown it the charts provided below, Altere offers constant monitoring and helps keep users in the therapeutic window of their prescription, making it more effective.
*The therapeutic window in a drug is the timeframe in which it is most effective while being safe in the patient, with the least amount of adverse effects. Going above the therapeutic range would result in overdose.
Daily Methadone User
Subcutaneous Injection over 24 hours
Altere User
Subcutaneous Injection with maintenance doses over 24 hours
Designer’s Note
Remember those who might be fighting a battle that is invisible to you, people who are our friends, family, coworkers. There are people all around who need our help- and Altere is the way to bring them the comfort and security they need to recover.
Because those who are trying to get help for their recovery shouldn’t be punished with planning their entire day around their trip to the clinic. Recovery is hard enough as it is, we should help by providing them with a system that has the proper tools needed for them to be successful in doing so, physically, mentally, and socially.
This project is dedicated to my best friend, Jillian. She passed away to an overdose three years ago, and since that moment I wanted to do everything in my power to prevent that from happening to anyone else. Altere is my attempt at changing something that is so vastly misunderstood by the public and de-stigmatizing it so that people can get the help that they need, efficiently and effectively.
Nobody else has to die.