Jordan Carlisle is the chief product and technology officer for Sober Sidekick by Empathy Health Technologies of Bentonville. He previously worked as the director of digital health and innovation at the Whole Health Institute in Bentonville. (Michael Woods)
Two technology companies in northwest Arkansas are shaping the future of addiction therapy with a value-based approach to helping those with substance use disorders stay sober.
Through very different mechanisms, Sober Sidekick and Huml Health are advancing addiction treatment, which traditionally relies heavily on methods like Alcoholics Anonymous and twelve-step programs developed in the 1930s.
“Not that that’s wrong, but if I asked you and your family to get in a plane from the 1930s, would you trust that plane?” Rachel Hobert, Huml’s CEO said in an interview.
Both startups are headquartered in Onward HQ, a Bentonville coworking space for early-stage companies that is managed by StartupNWA, the Northwest Arkansas Council’s startup arm.
Peer Support
Sober Sidekick, a sobriety app by Empathy Health Technologies, is a peer support social network that, according to an analysis by the Validation Institute, reduces relapse risk by 68% for those that interact with the app just five times.
The company relocated to Arkansas from California three-and-a-half years ago and raised $7.6 million in venture capital last year.
With the funding, the company hopes to accelerate the app’s adoption in the Medicaid-managed care market. That’s according to Jordan Carlisle, the chief product and technology officer at Sober Sidekick and Empathy Health.
Sober Sidekick partners with health plans to use the app’s predictive abilities to intervene before a user relapses. The app is able to gather data on users who are between clinical points.
“It’s all the things that happen when someone’s not in treatment,” Carlisle said. “It helps put together that fuller picture of someone’s health journey.”
And just one intervention can have a “dramatic effect” on outcomes, Carlisle said.
“From a health standpoint, it changes lives,” Carlisle said. “And then reducing costs for the plans, which we know when someone is diagnosed with a substance use disorder, the cost of that person is typically two times more or greater for the health plans to manage.”
Other goals for the funds include continuing product development and enhancing the company’s compatibility with health plans.
Sober Sidekick is working with Centene Corp.’s Ambetter Health in Arkansas, and is looking to partner with others health plans across the state.
That partnership has allowed Sober Sidekick to increase its Arkansas users from just shy of 2,000 a year ago to more than 7,000 in January.
“When there are these partnerships between technology and the traditional health care system, we’re able to engage with people to start building that data picture, that ability to predict and build proactive interventions at scale,” Carlisle said. “We do believe we can help bend the curve in Arkansas.”
As of December, the platform had more than 1 million downloads, 145,000 monthly active users and 2 million peer engagements.
Huml Health
As far as predictive capabilities, Huml Health is tackling a similar problem to Sober Sidekick, using wearable devices to collect biometric data to help clinicians and families monitor recovery during and after clinical treatment.
The company is selling its software platform to addiction treatment centers, providing patients with Samsung watches. The devices track sleep, stress, heart rate, oxygen levels and movement.
The startup acts as a tool to help clinicians understand the full spectrum of how a patient is reacting to treatment. That’s an improvement on current standard practice, which relies almost entirely on self-reported assessments.
The watch can also geolocate clients within a building, helping staff verify check-ins. And the watches can operate without a connected phone, an important feature since most treatment facilities restrict phone access.
Huml officially launched in October and is working with Pathways Recovery Centers of Tecumseh, Oklahoma, to implement the tech in treatment centers like Serenity Park in Little Rock and Country Road Recovery in Oklahoma. All users have to agree to a privacy policy before receiving the wearable.
The company had about 150 active users in mid-December; it expected around 400 users by the end of 2025 across the Midwest, California, Florida, Massachusetts and Maryland.
Huml is also building out a post-discharge model, so that when a person leaves treatment, they can stay connected to the treatment center, sponsors and family members.
“We can detect if you are drinking, or if there are changes in your biometrics from substances,” Hobert said. “We don’t say that you are using, but we say that it’s time to check in. If something is off, usually getting in and intervening earlier, rather than later, is super helpful.”
The company’s “Huml Score” gives users a rating based on sleep consistency, daily movement and routine, all factors Hobert said are critical for recovery.
“Routine is really grounding, and it’s a huge value post-treatment,” Hobert said. “With community, staying connected to loved ones, to your sponsor, making sure that you feel like you’re a part of something, and that if something went wrong, people would notice.”
Huml has plans to work with Apple, Oura and WHOOP to stack its software on top of other wearable devices. The tech is not covered by insurance yet, but the plan is for the wearable to be a billable code to insurance after Huml gathers three to six more months of data.
Both Carlisle and Hobert emphasized the need for innovation in addiction therapy.
“We need as many companies to try as much innovation as possible to tackle this issue,” Hobert said.
Carlisle said technology naturally plays a role in meeting people where they are and combatting isolation in recovery.
“Companies like Sober Sidekick, like Huml, that are empowering individuals to be stewards of their health, are also the companies that are generating data that captures that picture,” Carlisle said. “It’s using technology to understand how we help people make those lifestyle choices and behavior shifts that ultimately lead to massive amounts of improvements.”
Industry Innovation
Both companies said their business models focus on long-term recovery outcomes, not necessarily treatment admissions.
For Sober Sidekick, users primarily find the platform through keywords searches in different app stores, often during moments of crisis, Carlisle said. The company optimizes for keywords like “quitting drinking,” “sobriety” and “alcoholism.”
“Those individuals may not know what to search for from a health care standpoint,” Carlisle said. “They don’t know to search for medically assisted treatment. They’re searching for the things that relate to whatever they’re experiencing in that moment.
“We show up when they search for that.”
