Technology transfer of behavioral economic tasks for assessing alcohol reinforcer pathology: Development and feasibility of a commercially-available tool for clinical practice

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PROJECT SUMMARY Alcohol use disorder (AUD) contributes to excessive disability, morbidity, and mortality in the United States. As one of the nation’s leading causes of death, public health guidelines recommend consistent standardized alcohol screening. However, screening for alcohol misuse is underperformed, laborious, and is susceptible to demand characteristics and concerns about stigmatizing the patient. To combat these issues, BEAM Diagnostics, Inc. developed Beacon, a commercializable alcohol misuse digital screening tool based on the theoretical framework of reinforcer pathology dedicated to increasing standardized screening without stigmatizing the patient. In Phase I of this project, we conducted a clinical study at a large multi-site healthcare system serving approximately 1M patients per year and validated Beacon as demonstrating robust predictive accuracy of alcohol misuse and positive reports of feasibility and acceptability from providers. The goal of this Phase II SBIR is to finalize Beacon’s development into a fully realized commercial product, both as a stand-alone tool and as an integrated tool within an electronic medical record (EMR) system. Aim 1 will iterate and optimize the user-experience and accessibility of Beacon as a product, develop nationally representative norming, produce comprehensive clinical reference materials, ensure offline capability, and Spanish-language translation. Aim 2 will be dedicated to integrating Beacon into EPIC, a widely used electronic medical record system within a healthsystem partner, to improve usability, workflow capabilities, and record-keeping of alcohol misuse directly into a patient’s medical chart. In addition, Aim 2 will launch a wave-style education and implementation initiative to promote Beacon’s use in three outpatient departments. Finally, BEAM will complete an Exploratory Aim seeking to validate Beacon as a measurement-based care tool. At the conclusion of this Phase II project, BEAM will brought Beacon to market as a digital screening app for AUD, both as a stand-alone product and an EMR-integrated version.