# Alpha I Update! (October) | Proof in Recovery

- Canonical URL: https://wefunder.com/feed/158562
- Entity ID: wefunder:feed_item:158562
- Published at: 2022-10-08 23:56:32 UTC
- Updated at: 2025-07-09 03:22:29 UTC

## Author
Zachary Ratliff

## Subject
Proof in Recovery

## Content
Hi all!Quality testing is finalized and we have asked Apple & Google to list the alpha I version of the app! We have some clinicians lined up to walk through the patient experience for feedback as we complete our IRB partnership with St. Louis University. Which reminds me of how you can help, if you have a HIPAA compliance resource, we'd love to hear about it!Recent highlightsAlpha I build complete! More in the "Product" sectionDr. Schneider and I enrolled us in the NIH Application Assistance Program via the NIAAA which along with our Turbo SBIR program & World Business Chicago grant resources should help us successfully submit a strong application for SBIR 1 for NIAAA & a fast track (SBIR 1 & 2) SBIR grant application for NIDA. ProductThe Z1 team has finalized their testing and we're excited for approval for the app to be downloaded. As intended (and will be for always), the app will only be available to download via a magic link. In the future, we will have providers sending it out, but in the near term our team will handle the onboarding. Current focusDr. Christine Schneider has been spear heading our IRB efforts. She has secured Max Zubatsky, Ph.D. as our PI. Max is the program director for the Medical Family Therapy Program within the School of Medicine at St. Louis University for our eating disorder study. In addition to overseeing the operations, duties, resources, and curriculum, he actively performs continuous quality improvement for the program which is of particularly interest to our team as we hope to bring a similar data driven feedback model to substance use and eating disorder treatment programs. I am focusing in on developing our PHI policies and documenting the ones that Z1 has in place. This is an area where working with a healthcare specific accelerator may be beneficial and we are considering joining Matter here in Chicago. Deana, Devin (Further Faster), and I are working on our outreach to potential research partners. We are trying to be forward thinking and use these efforts to test our messaging that will eventually be used for sales. Given the quality improvement efforts a hyper-collaborative approach is going to be needed to ensure congruence. While this may slow our process it should reduce churn and ensure we capture a portion future VBC reimbursements. (Devin, Deana, & Dr. Schneider in the middle)ChallengesWe thought partnering with SLU for their IRB would be easier given Dr. Schneider is an adjunct professor there and her intern is a grad student, but in practice this may create too many conflicts of interest. Dr. Schneider has significant relationships with Washington University (STL) and so we are going to explore partnerships there. I have also long been a fan of the work coming from Nicholas Jacobson out of Dartmouth; we are discussing with advisors about a partnership there as university has some significant commercial interests in on of our competitors from a licensing agreement. How you can help us improve careIf you know of any remote accelerators or HIPAA compliance resources, we would love to hear about them. Additionally, on the off chance anyone has experience with licensing agreements from universities I would love to set up a zoom call to pick your brain!Stay well!Zachary Q. Ratliff and the Proof in Recovery TeamA quick reminder of what we do (for introducing us to your favs):Proof in Recovery offers a digital patient engagement and quality improvement platform for substance use and eating disorder treatment. We facilitate individualized patient treatment and interventions, reduce healthcare costs, and prove treatment efficacy.www.proofinrecovery.comPS: For anyone wanting wedding pics as promised last month, here is my better half: