GHSA and Responsibility.org provided a $30,000 grant to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation partnered with the Lackawanna County Treatment Court to pilot a program to address impaired driving and improve roadway safety.
In 2023, the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) partnered with the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility (Responsibility.org) to provide a $30,000 grant to The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) to tackle issues related to driving under the influence of drugs and high-risk impaired driving in various settings, including laboratories, courtrooms and at the roadside.
PennDOT partnered with the Lackawanna County Treatment Court to pilot a program with Somantix Technologies. This program tested real-time gesture detection and wearable assisted remote patient monitoring (RPM) solutions for cost-effective tracking of substances in treatment court participants. The pilot aimed to evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of this artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
The goal was to have Treatment Court participants wear RPM devices to determine if they had any illegal substances in their systems, which would be a violation of their probation. Sudden changes in detected behavior can alert a user or caregiver to provide intervention mitigating complications or worsening of a condition. The Somatix Smokebeat application has been shown to predict cigarette cravings by up to 15 minutes through AI, machine learning and gesture detection. Applying similar logic, the Somatix system can be used to detect changes in behavior, which could alert a user to a risk of relapse or notify a supervising officer that a drug test may be warranted.
While only 40 participants used the device, PennDOT was able to gain a better understanding of what the SOMATIX device could and could not do to help prevent drunk driving and relapse among this group of offenders. No participant tested positive for substance use while wearing the device. Anecdotally, the team posits there was probably a psychological component to wearing the device, since the participants knew they were being watched more closely, they were extra careful. This would parallel what someone does when wearing a pedometer, they take extra steps.
PennDOT and the county overestimated how easy it would be to both recruit enough participants and get buy-in from Parole Officers. After consulting with SOMATIX, there was agreement that future projects would be more successful with a smaller cohort to which more attention is paid .
The most significant accomplishment of the project is the recognition that products and services, such as the SOMATIX device, are available to Treatment Courts. These tools can be utilized effectively to help Parole Officers monitor their participants in a discreet manner. Furthermore, the SOMATIX team gained valuable insights into improving their product to better align with the PennDOT model.
