View source for PEER SURE App: A Peer Supported Substance Use Research and Education Web Application with Generative AI

Opioid use disorder (OUD) through prescription opioid misuse, heroin and fentanyl use has increased dramatically in the past 20 years, with an estimated 2 to 5 million adults suffering from OUDs each year. OUDs are responsible for significant increases in morbidity and mortality. The consequences of opioid use disorder are significant and can be devastating for individuals, families, and communities. Opioid misuse and addiction can lead to a range of physical and mental health problems, including overdose, chronic pain, depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders. Opioid use disorder can also have a profound impact on social and economic well-being, leading to unemployment, homelessness, criminal justice involvement, and other negative outcomes. 

People who use drugs (PWUD) are often reluctant to seek care because of underlying social, psychological causes of crisis and stigma associated with drug use. PWUD relate more effectively to peer support specialists (PSS) with lived or living experiences of using drugs thus alleviating the stigma and associate a sense of trust and belonging with peer specialists. Hence, there is growing evidence of peer support as an effective harm reduction strategy. 
The goal of this project is to develop a peer support-based substance use research and education web application (PEER SURE App) enhanced with Generative AI. The PEER SURE App should be simple, easy to use, secure, mobile- and desktop- friendly web application for both the participants and the peer support specialists. The goal of the App is to help the participants with addiction recovery, provide near real-time support and accountability. 

PEER SURE App will (i) enable pairing of PWUD with PSS, (ii)support PWUD to check-in regularly by answering short questions, (iii) create separate private channels/rooms between PWUD and their assigned PSS, (iv) enhance generation of support text using generative AI based on the context of text exchange between the participant and peer support specialist. The AI generated text will be thoroughly vetted by PSS with a human in loop before posting to the participant, and (v) provide PSS with a simple and intuitive dashboard to visualize scores and behavior changes of their assigned participants over time. The peer support specialists can call or text their participant based on the responses to questions and change in scores. The App will also support the specialists to save feedback about their participants each week. Data in the App should be stored on a secure HIPAA compliant server with appropriate IRB oversight in place.

Student Research Activities: The REU fellows will perform the following major tasks:
-	Survey state-of-the-art peer support Apps and research within the OUD space.
-	Develop SURE APP on a cloud platform.
-	Implement Chat GPT APIs within the PEER SURE App.
-	Evaluate the generated AI by consulting with stakeholders.

Student Background: Students need to have basic web development skills or be open to learning web development. Students should also be inquisitive and implement Generative AI within the App.