Cure
Overview
Steve Jenkins built Q2i's first tool for one doctor treating addiction. The same idea, rewarding people fast for progress they can see, now runs through products for addiction, probation, and diabetes.
In 2016, a primary care physician came to Steve Jenkins with a problem her software could not solve. She was treating people for addiction inside a small practice, which few primary care doctors did then. Her electronic health record could not help her coordinate that care, so the work fell to her team.
Jenkins had spent the previous decade building medical devices and software. That work covered pediatric pain and anxiety management, and home dialysis. He and his team began working with her on technology to help primary care doctors treat addiction.
Q2i grew out of that work. Jenkins founded the digital health company in 2016 and still leads it as chief executive. Today Q2i runs three business lines: contingency management for addiction treatment, the Probation and Reentry Coach Application (PARCA) for people on community supervision, and a diabetes prevention product called GLYRA. Each one rewards people quickly for progress they can see, whether that is a negative drug test, a completed housing step, or a week of steady glucose readings.
“Technology should do more than collect information or remind someone that they have not done something,” Jenkins said. “It should help make the healthier choice more achievable at the moment the choice is being made.”
Rewarding Progress in Small Steps
Contingency management means giving people small, tangible rewards for verified healthy behavior. Someone in treatment for stimulant use might give a urine sample twice a week. A negative test earns a gift card or a voucher, and the value grows with each consecutive negative test.
That approach matters most for stimulants. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports that no medication has been approved for methamphetamine use disorder or any other stimulant use disorder. NIDA calls contingency management the best-studied behavioral treatment for methamphetamine use disorder.
“People are more likely to sustain difficult behavior when expectations are clear, progress is recognized and the benefits do not feel impossibly distant,” Jenkins said.
Three Goals at a Time
About 3.7 million adults were on probation or parole in the United States at the end of 2024, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
PARCA came out of a National Institutes of Health grant, and Q2i patented the technology in January 2025. The company built it on Amazon’s government cloud, which lets agencies hold justice and health records under federal compliance rules.
Someone on probation sits down with their officer and talks through what is going on in their life. From there, they choose goals in the app: housing, transportation, food, and a job. Most take on three at a time.
Each goal breaks into small steps, and each step links to a local service that provides it. The officer follows the same goals from a dashboard and can see how long someone has been stuck on one.
“If you're expecting someone to do well in addiction treatment and they need some stability around housing, income, and the other facets of their life,” he said.
The next stage of the work adds contingency management to the platform, and a study of the tool runs through 2027. Q2i announced in January that Travis County, Texas, deployed PARCA in its domestic violence probation program.
What Comes Next
Q2i is adding artificial intelligence across the platform, both to catch when someone is disengaging and to turn dense case plans into steps a person can act on.
Ten years in, Jenkins has clear views on what it takes to build in this space.
“The commercial pathway is important,” Jenkins said. A product can improve health outcomes and still sit unused without a buyer who sees a return. Founders should identify that buyer early, understand what the technology is worth through their eyes, and talk to them before building too far.
Cure puts Q2i near researchers, clinicians, payers, and other founders working through the same problem. “Digital health companies cannot develop successfully in isolation,” Jenkins said.
