# Improving Remote Breathalyzer Procedures used by Clinicians and Researchers to Remotely Monitor Alcohol Use

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS · 2022 · $228,377

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
 The availability of wearable biosensors that continuously and/or remotely monitor alcohol use is
increasing and has created new opportunities for research and intervention in clinical practice and forensic
settings. Our previous work in this area has focused on transdermal alcohol monitors, which remotely and
continuously monitor alcohol excreted through the skin. While such devices, like Secure Continuous
Remote Alcohol Monitors, have been validated and found reliable, they have some disadvantages that limit
widespread adoption including availability, cost, size, interference with physical activities, and stigma. One
alternative is the use of breathalyzers that remotely sample and report breath alcohol levels across the day.
These are becoming the preferred method for monitoring alcohol use in settings where continuous
monitoring for alcohol consumption is required. Although remote breathalyzers are accurate for detecting
current blood alcohol levels and identifying the individual providing the sample through facial recognition,
their primary limitation could be the failure to detect drinking when monitoring is absent during the "off-
cycle”; the 10 hours between early 9pm and 6am when heavy alcohol use could occur. Individuals who have
difficulty remaining abstinent and may adopt a pattern of drinking during “off-cycle” periods to avoid the
negative consequences associated with positive breath samples. We propose that current practices for
remote alcohol breath monitoring in research, clinical, and judicial settings are inadequate to detect drinking.
Specifically, we aim to evaluate the accuracy of remote breath alcohol monitoring to detect drinking events;
and determine if drinking undetected by remote breath alcohol monitoring can be identified by
phosphatidylethanol measurement. We expect that breath alcohol monitoring (and infrequent blood spot
sampling) will be more acceptable than transdermal alcohol monitoring. This work challenges current
practices by providing evidence of “off-cycle” drinking (Aim 1) and will improve existing methods by
validating remote breath testing plus periodic measures of phosphatidylethanol (Aim 2). We also will
determine the optimal frequency of phosphatidylethanol measurements to confidently confirm abstinence or
identify those who may be motivated to adopt patterns of drinking to avoid detection and consequences
(Aim 2). This work will help redefine remote alcohol-use monitoring procedures and significantly improve
clinical, forensic and research practices.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10452357
- **Project number:** 1R21AA029641-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS
- **Principal Investigator:** Donald M Dougherty
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $228,377
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-08-01 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10452357

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10452357, Improving Remote Breathalyzer Procedures used by Clinicians and Researchers to Remotely Monitor Alcohol Use (1R21AA029641-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10452357. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*