Increasing access to effective opioid-addiction care
- Client
Groups Recover Together
- Services
Product Design Sprint, Mobile Development, Design Systems, Product Management, React Native
- Description
Centralizing a highly effective opioid-addiction care model into one easy-to-use digital platform
Over
20,000
people began their treatment journey with Groups.
Nearly
3x
fewer groups members die of overdose compared to the national average
Nearly
100%
of members who stayed in treatment for six months achieved remission
Expanding in-person support to remote care
Groups Recover Together (Groups) delivers medication-assisted treatment and group therapy to over 11,000 sufferers of Opioid Use Disorder in the USA.
Unlike traditional one-to-one therapy, Groups unites people at different stages of recovery for shared learning and accountability.
thoughtbot partnered with Groups Recover Together to design and build a user-centric, unified, and sustainable web and mobile app-based platform offering a full suite of medication-assisted treatments for opioid addiction.
"It was important to us that our members be a significant input in the design of this platform. That focus on letting our members guide the way has led us to be more thoughtful about how the app can build and foster community, as well as reduce friction in the overall recovery experience. Recovering from opioid addiction is hard enough. We knew we had to build a tool that enhanced and simplified the member experience.”
– Michelle Cartier, VP of Product Management at Groups Recover Together
Recovery is a 24/7 commitment, work that extends outside the 1-hour per week treatment window that our members receive at Groups. This app centralizes our highly effective care model onto one easy-to-use platform and allows our members to access the support of the Groups community, wherever and whenever they need to.
As a result of their expansion into remote-first treatment, Groups’ membership has doubled. With the new platform and product team in place, Groups are all set to sustainably extend their impact, transforming the lives of even more Opioid Use Disorder sufferers across the USA.
Cutting through complexity to answer the most important questions
thoughtbot understood the core objective was to simplify the remote treatment experience for both members and clinicians.
Together with Groups we began the engagement by identifying two key design questions: what are the minimum practical-to-deliver features that will improve user experience, and how can we integrate the new platform with Groups’ existing electronic health record (EHR) tool, eCW?
Luckily, the thoughtbot team has a proven process for answering questions such as these, developed over 19 years of helping clients identify the smallest, most meaningful version of an app that can be rapidly launched to users.
The Outcome
Sustainable growth and impactful recovery care
The project between thoughtbot and Groups achieved the aim of simplifying the remote treatment experience for users.
Self-scheduling, outreach, forms, payment, treatment planning, and group therapy are now all managed through one cloud-based platform, which is integrated with Groups existing EHR system, eCW. This new platform also serves as the backend of a web-based care team portal and iOS and Android apps.
Feedback from all user groups has been incredibly positive. As one member reflected, “You live in such a disorganized way through addiction that it’s refreshing to have some things a little simpler.” The platform is also designed to reduce the administrative burden on Groups’ staff, enabling them to focus more on what matters: giving their members the care they need, when they need it.
