Startup Spotlight: DopaApp Fights Addiction from “Your Pocket”
By: Yasmeen Mamdouh
Three young entrepreneurs have developed DopaApp, a mobile application encourages addicts to seek treatment and track their recovery.
CEO Mohamed Khashaba, CFO Mohamed Abdullah and Sales Director Mohamed Abdelatti were inspired by the recovery of a close friend who suffered from drug addiction for seven years.
The app provides a communication channel between patients, supervisors, doctors and mental facilities.
“These [addicts] are self-destructive but if they get proper treatment, they can become very good members of society and even much more productive than the average person,” Ayman Taha, fellow co-founder of DopaApp, told The Caravan.
Other features include free books, text and video chat, a complete patient profile and a relapse indicator bases on several drug addiction treatment programs, such as the very popular Narcotics Anonymous’ Twelve Steps.
The Twelve Steps include several treatments, one of which requires the patients to name all the mistakes they have done during their addiction, the people they wronged and how they can make amends.
“How many of us hold ourselves accountable for our actions every single day? Well, as parts of their treatment, and on the tenth step, [recovering addicts] do so every single night,” said Taha.
The app helps patients remember the practices of their treatments and constantly have access to whatever resources they need.
“The app is like a professional friend in your pocket that can give you support and guidance anytime you need it,” Mohamed Diab, DopaApp and The Special Fund for Combating Addiction medical consultant, told The Caravan.
Diab worked with the the team to create the chain of contacts and features that patients would require. While the application is in its early phases, he maintains that patients who have started using it are happy with its features.
The startup works exclusively on a business-to-business basis, where the trio pitch their app to mental health facilities and clinics, who then recommend it to their patients.
In Egypt, the team is working with a rehabilitation center and a private clinic to achieve these ends.
While they are gradually expanding and increasing their partnerships, one of their main goals is to partner with the Egyptian government to create a joint project with the Addiction Treatment and Abuse Fund, a treatment center partnered with the Ministry of Health.
“I see this app, in just a few years, creating a major leap forward in the field of addiction treatment,” said Diab.
On an international scale, the team is working in conjunction with New Mexico University’s own rehabilitation center to facilitate the use of the application in state facilities in the US.
The project will use the application as the technical aspect of the University’s addiction treatment program.
The app was among the startups showcased in AUC Venture Lab’s (V-Lab) two-day exposition held on September 24 and 25.
