Recruiting

UnityPhilly

Sponsor:

Drexel University

Code:

NCT06466005

Conditions

Opioid Overdose

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Interventions

UnityPhilly app

Study Details

Brief summary:

The goal of this clinical trial is to discover if an overdose prevention app (UnityPhilly) can encourage citizen responders to respond and prevent opioid overdoses using the UnityPhilly app. The main hypotheses to answer are:

Hypothesis 1: UnityPhilly signal rates relative to EMS calls will increase over time. The primary outcome will be assessed as the total number of overdoses signaled by participants relative to all overdose-related EMS calls, per year.

Hypothesis 2: The number of cases where a nearby UnityPhilly participant successfully reverses an overdose with naloxone will increase over time. The primary outcome will be assessed as the number of successful reversals relative to the total number of responder arrivals, per year.

Participants will be supplied with the UnityPhilly app, training on how to use the app and respond to an opioid overdose using naloxone, and respond to follow up surveys about their experiences.

Conditions

Opioid Overdose

Study ID

NCT06466005

Start date

Sep 16, 2025

Status verified date

May, 2026

Completion date

Jul, 2028

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Dec, 2027

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • owning a smartphone with a data package;
  • living or working in one of three identified Philadelphia neighborhoods;
  • aged 18 or older.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • persons aged under 18 years of age

Study Design

Enrollment

450 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Non randomized

Intervention Model

Single group

Primary purpose

Prevention

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

other: Active non-medical opioid user

Person who has used an opioid, e.g., heroin, fentanyl, non-medically in the past 30 days.

other: Active prescription medical opioid user

Person who has used an opioid, e.g., hydrocodone, with a medical prescription in the past 30 days.

other: Person in recovery from opioid misuse

Person who formerly used opioids non-medically and/or is on opioid replacement therapy.

other: Caregiver/family members of groups 1, 2, 3

Person who is caring for or a family member of active non-medical user, medical user, or person in recovery.

other: Concerned community member

Person in the community who is concerned about the opioid overdose crisis and is interested addressing the problem.

Interventions

UnityPhilly app

UnityPhilly automatically connects bystanders and victims of opioid overdose with nearby community members who can respond immediately with naloxone.

Primary outcome measure

  • Rate of Overdoses Signaled [ Time Frame: 2 year period ]
  • Rate of Overdoses Reversed [ Time Frame: 2 year period ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Stephen Lankenau, PhD

323-326-6438sel59@drexel.edu

Kushal Naik, MPH

kun24@drexel.edu

Locations

Drexel University

Recruiting

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104

Contacts

Stephen Lankenau, PhD

323-326-6438sel59@drexel.edu

Kushal Naik, MPH

kun24@drexel.edu

More Information

Sponsor

Drexel University

Last update posted

Jul 20, 2026

Last verified

May, 2026

Keywords

  • overdose prevention
  • Philadelphia
  • UnityPhilly

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-08. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Drexel University on 2026-07-20.