# A software product that empowers individuals affected by substance use disorders and their care teams with health and social resources

> **NIH NIH R43** · MEDICAL INNOVATORS COMPANY, LLC · 2020 · $224,865

## Abstract

Project Summary
Access to community resources such as housing, food, transportation and medication also known as social
determinants of health (SDOH) has been shown to be critical for a successful treatment and recovery of
substance use disorders (SUD). Therefore, case managers and social workers at various points-of-care (e.g.
law enforcement sobering centers, primary health centers) dedicate time to identify community resources that
may address their patients’ health and social barriers. However, identifying competent community resources
remains a challenge as they are usually stored in manual “referral binders” which are highly duplicated and
fragmented across organizations. Therefore, this significantly contributes to lack of direct access to recovery
capital for individuals affected by SUD.
Based on preliminary data and interviews with case managers and social workers, this SBIR Phase I study has
two objectives. 1) Evaluate whether a co-creation led business model that will leverage partnerships with
organizations that have SUD subject matter expertise (e.g. Houston Recovery Center -
https://houstonrecoverycenter.org/) can provide enhanced access to SUD treatment services and community
resources at the point-of-care. This is important as most points-of-care particularly primary health centers may
not have care teams highly experienced in curating SUD related resources. Therefore, our innovation will
facilitate the flow of SUD related community resources from organizations with SUD subject matter expertise to
those without, such as primary health centers. 2) Establish the feasibility of a novel computational natural
language processing (NLP) algorithm in matching health and social needs identified at the point-of-care to
relevant and competent community resources.
Our hypothesis is that the co-creation led business model coupled with a novel computational natural
language processing (NLP) algorithm will lead to enhanced access to appropriate SUD recovery and
healthcare resources. Finally, upon successful completion of Phase I, a future Phase II project will focus on
establishing whether these innovations have a positive impact on the utilization of SUD recovery support
services, encounters with law enforcement and EMS services.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9984913
- **Project number:** 1R43DA051063-01
- **Recipient organization:** MEDICAL INNOVATORS COMPANY, LLC
- **Principal Investigator:** Tom Lee
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $224,865
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-04-15 → 2021-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9984913

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9984913, A software product that empowers individuals affected by substance use disorders and their care teams with health and social resources (1R43DA051063-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9984913. Licensed CC0.

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