Case Study: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation achieves precise GPS participant tracking for substance-abuse research with Actsoft Encore Comet Tracker

Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation - Customer Case Study

The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) is a San Francisco–based nonprofit scientific organization that studies drug and alcohol abuse. PIRE needed hard, verifiable data about where study participants went—specifically whether they visited areas that sell alcohol—and how participants responded to different environments so they could justify NIH funding and design targeted interventions. To meet that need they turned to Actsoft, using Actsoft’s Encore GPS tracking/Comet Tracker solution.

Actsoft’s Comet Tracker provides near‑real‑time GPS location, breadcrumb trails, routing confirmation and stop‑time data so PIRE can quantify visits to bars and liquor stores and monitor participants once they leave research sites. The Actsoft technology has become critical to PIRE’s work—giving researchers the precise, actionable data they need to complete studies, validate findings for funders, and develop more targeted methods to combat substance abuse.

Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

Hilary Byrnes

Research Scientist