What do digital tool developers think about people with substance use disorders?

What is it about?

Digital solutions are increasingly being developed to support substance use disorder (SUD) treatment, with the aim of improving tailoring, efficiency and cost-effectiveness in social welfare and healthcare settings. This Finnish qualitative study focused on the development of a specific digital client segmentation tool called The Navigator, which is designed to match people with SUD to appropriate levels of care based on the complexity of their problems. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted with professionals involved in developing The Navigator. Inductive content analysis was used to examine their perspectives on three areas: their own roles as developers, their assumptions and views about clients with SUD, and their assessments of service effectiveness and decision-making processes. The study reveals how developer worldviews and assumptions about people with SUD shape the tools being built to serve them.

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Why is it important?

Digital client segmentation tools have the potential to improve treatment matching and resource allocation in addiction services, but the values and assumptions embedded in their design are rarely examined. If developers hold stigmatising or reductive views of people with SUD, these can become encoded in systems that then influence clinical decision-making at scale. This study surfaces the perspectives of those building these tools before they are widely adopted, providing an opportunity to identify and address problematic assumptions at the design stage rather than after implementation. The Finnish context, where digital health solutions are being actively integrated into social and healthcare systems, makes this timely, and the findings have implications for any health system investing in algorithmic or digital approaches to treatment matching in addiction care.