An interventional study of Connections mHealth Application in Substance Related Disorder, Drug Overdose and eHealth, sponsored by University of Wisconsin, Madison. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-10-16.
Sponsored by University of Wisconsin, Madison · Not applicable, Interventional, and Device feasibility
This study will examine the feasibility, appropriateness, and acceptability of a bundle of smartphone-based tools for lowering overdose risk. 40 participants will be enrolled and can expect to be on study for up to 9 months.
As a pilot study, this study is not designed to rigorously evaluate the effect of the intervention (i.e., health-related biomedical or behavioral outcome) on participants. Rather, the sample size will allow determination of feasibility, acceptability, appropriateness, and secondarily, will allow quantification of preliminary effect size to aid in future trial planning. After enrolling in the study, participants will receive a mobile phone with an unlimited data plan. After receiving the phone, participants will receive a brief orientation to a bundle of phone and internet-based overdose prevention tools. This includes overdose crisis hotlines, mail-order overdose prevention supplies, and a mobile health app that has been adapted for people who use drugs to support self-determined motivation for reaching goals through educational content, social engagement, and peer-to-peer support. Each month for 6 months, participants will also complete a 20-30 minute survey evaluating the primary and secondary outcomes (described below) and use of each phone and internet-based tool that is part of the enhanced harm reduction bundle. 25 participants will also be invited to complete a 45-60 minute semi-structured in-depth interview about their experience participating in the study and use of the phone- and internet-based tools. Primary analyses will seek to describe the feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness of the overdose prevention service model. Secondarily, changes in overdose risk behaviors and experiences over the 6-month study period relative to baseline will be analyzed.
Primary Objective: to evaluate feasibility, appropriateness, and acceptability of an enhanced harm reduction service model incorporating internet and/or mobile health tools to reduce overdose risk for people who use opioid and/or stimulant drugs.
Secondary Objective: to understand overdose risk behaviors before and after the intervention.
104 studies on the registry are indexed under Drug Overdose; 22 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 40 is below the median of 124 across 76 interventional studies indexed under Drug Overdose.
Browse Drug Overdose studies →University of Wisconsin, Madison is the lead sponsor of 1,188 studies on the registry; 181 are open to participants now.
Of its 157 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 118 (75%) have results posted.
Compared within Drug Overdose, this study's primary condition as ClinicalTrials.gg classifies it; the registry's first condition term is Substance-Related Disorders. The counts are of registry records indexed under each term, refreshed daily. How we classify →
The criteria were revised on the registry on Oct 16, 2026. See what changed
Inclusion Criteria (Pilot Participant):
Report drug use in the past 30 days, defined as
Inclusion Criteria (Peer Mentor Participant):
Exclusion Criteria:
Do not have the ability to participate in screening and enrollment activities in any one of the following ways:
People who use opioid and/or stimulant drugs and are disconnected from harm reduction services.
Device: Connections mHealth Application
Mobile health app, bundled with other harm reduction internet and phone resources
Acceptability of Intervention Measure (AIM)
The Acceptability of Intervention Measure (AIM) measures intervention acceptability with 4 items ranked on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Participants will be asked the 4-item questionnaire for each tool offered in the bundle (3). Scores are averaged across the measure for each tool and subsequently scores for individual tools will be summed to generate a composite acceptability score of the program. Scores can range from 3-15, with higher scores meaning higher acceptability of the intervention
Time frame: up to 6 months
Intervention Appropriateness Measure (IAM)
The Intervention Appropriateness Measure (IAM) measures intervention appropriateness with 4 items ranked on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Participants will be asked the 4-item questionnaire for each tool offered in the bundle (3). Scores are averaged across the measure for each tool and subsequently scores for individual tools will be summed to generate a composite appropriateness score of the program. Scores can range from 3-15, with higher scores meaning higher appropriateness of the intervention.
Time frame: up to 6 months
Feasibility of Intervention Measure (FIM)
The Feasibility of Intervention Measure (FIM) measures intervention feasibility with 4 items ranked on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Participants will be asked the 4-item questionnaire for each tool offered in the bundle (3). Scores are averaged across the measure for each tool and subsequently scores for individual tools will be summed to generate a composite feasibility score of the program. Scores can range from 3-15, with higher scores meaning higher feasibility of the intervention.
Time frame: up to 6 months
Change in the Number of Risk Days from baseline to 6 months
This data will be collected using the Overdose Risk Behavior Scale (ORBS) instrument which provides a comprehensive index of proximal opioid-related overdose risks. At baseline and study completion, participants will complete the ORBS assessment. The ORBS assessment will be administered to assess the potential effect of the intervention on the frequency of overdose risk behaviors. The average change in the self reported risk days on this instrument from baseline to six months will be reported as the outcome.
Time frame: baseline, 6 months
Plan to share: Yes — As part of a NIH-funded study which requires data sharing and open access commitments, data from this project will be shared with a national coordinating center and in an open-access data repository. Data shared with external research partners may contain limited identifiable information but will remain confidential and under the direction of an approved Data Use and Transfer Agreement (e.g. not public). Any data shared on public data repositories will be stripped of any potential identifiers.
Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan, Informed consent form
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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University of Wisconsin, Madison →