From digital therapeutics to personalized mental health solutions: Pear Therapeutics expands platform via partnerships with Empatica, etectRx, KeyWise, and Winterlight
Pear Therapeutics Expands Platform with Digital Biomarkers, Machine Learning Algorithms and Sensor-Based Technologies (press release):
Pear Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that it has entered into agreements with multiple technology companies, including Empatica Inc., etectRx, Inc., and KeyWise, Inc. The new technologies complement the voice-based biomarkers previously licensed from Winterlight Labs. These new agreements bolster Pear’s Prescription Digital Therapeutics (PDT) platform, by adding to its library of digital biomarkers, machine learning algorithms, sensor-based technologies, and digital therapeutics.
The n...
Source: SharpBrains - April 7, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Technology & Innovation digital biomarkers digital therapeutics Empatica etectRx KeyWise Pear Therapeutics WinterLight Labs Source Type: blogs
Neuroscientist Lisa Genova, author of the beautiful novel Still Alice, releases non-fiction book on Memory
A Neuroscientist’s Poignant Study of How We Forget Most Things in Life (The New Yorker):
Any study of memory is, in the main, a study of its frailty. In “Remember,” an engrossing survey of the latest research, Lisa Genova explains that a healthy brain quickly forgets most of what passes into conscious awareness. The fragments of experience that do get encoded into long-term memory are then subject to “creative editing.” To remember an event is to reimagine it; in the reimagining, we inadvertently introduce new information, often colored by our current emotional state. A dream, a suggestion, and even the mere pass...
Source: SharpBrains - April 5, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Education & Lifelong Learning book healthy-brain long-term-memory neuroscientist non-fiction book remember Source Type: blogs
On Awe, Wonder, Biofeedback, CBSM, Virtual Reality, Privacy, Being Wrong, and more
Welcome to a new edition of SharpBrains’ e‑newsletter, this time featuring eleven timely resources and research findings for lifelong brain health and mental well-being.
#1. “Awe is the feeling we experience when encountering vast things that we don’t understand. Around the world and in culturally varying ways, studies show, we experience awe in response to others’ kindness and courage, nature, music, religious or spiritual practice, the visual and dramatic arts, and epiphany … It leads us to share, collaborate, and wonder. In experiences of awe, people often speak as if they have found their soul.”
Sometimes...
Source: SharpBrains - March 31, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Education & Lifelong Learning Peak Performance Technology & Innovation Applied Neuroscience AppliedVR awe biofeedback Blue Note Therapeutics CBSM consumer-reports digital health Happify Health heart-rate-vari Source Type: blogs
Growing research supports Heart Rate Variability (HRV) biofeedback training to lower stress and anxiety, increase sports performance
Conclusions: HRV biofeedback training is associated with a large reduction in self-reported stress and anxiety. Although more well-controlled studies are needed, this intervention offers a promising approach for treating stress and anxiety with wearable devices.
Effect of Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback on Sport Performance, a Systematic Review (Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback )
Abstract: Aim is to determine if the training with heart rate variability biofeedback allows to improve performance in athletes of different disciplines. Methods such as database search … All studies had a small sample size (range f...
Source: SharpBrains - March 29, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Peak Performance Technology & Innovation ambulatory monitoring anxiety athletic performance athletic training biofeedback biofeedback training exercise heart-rate-variability HRV lower anxiety lower stress Source Type: blogs
To prevent “cognitive entrenchment,” think like a scientist and be wrong often
In a rapidly changing world, it’s important to be able to adapt and change rather than stubbornly adhering to old ideas and opinions. This was one of the lessons of 2020, a year that forced us to question many of our assumptions about what behaviors are safe, how work and school can be conducted, and how we connect with others.
“In a changing world, you have to be willing and able to change your mind. Otherwise, your expertise can fail, your opinions get out of date, and your ideas fall flat,” says organizational psychologist Adam Grant, author of the new book Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know.
...
Source: SharpBrains - March 25, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greater Good Science Center Tags: Education & Lifelong Learning Adam Grant book cognitive cognitive entrenchment knowing Think Again Source Type: blogs
AppliedVR raises $29M to help make virtual reality the standard of care for treating chronic pain
AppliedVR Raises $29 Million for Immersive Headsets (LA Business Journal):
Century City-based AppliedVR, Inc. announced March 23 that it has raised $29 million in Series A funding that will be used to continue development of an immersive headset to help patients with chronic pain.
… The company is building a headset called EaseVRx that will display immersive environments like campfires, mountains and other animated nature scenes to help patients dealing with chronic pain, including fibromyalgia and chronic intractable lower back pain…
AppliedVR Chief Executive and co-founder Matthew Stoudt said that the pandemic h...
Source: SharpBrains - March 24, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Technology & Innovation AppliedVR chronic pain cognitive behavioral therapies FDA fibromyalgia headset mindfulness exercises pain treatment virtual-reality Source Type: blogs
Tip for digital health start-ups: To navigate regulatory gray areas, “engage early and engage often” with the FDA
FDA’s enforcement discretion for digital health is more ambiguous than ever in 2021 (MobiHealthNews):
The digital health ecosystem has swelled to encompass a broad range of products over the years.
On one end of the spectrum is software-as-medical-devices (SaMD) and prescription digital therapeutics, product categories for which a comprehensive regulatory strategy and engagement with the FDA are mandatory. On the other are wellness apps and other low-risk digital tools that likely spend more time worrying about oversight from the Federal Trade Commission than the health regulator.
However, a growing number of companies a...
Source: SharpBrains - March 22, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Technology & Innovation 510(k) clearance artificial intelligence digital health enforcement discretion FDA Federal Trade Commission SaMD software-as-medical-devices wellness apps Source Type: blogs
Innovation in COVID times: Otsuka and Click Therapeutics announce fully virtual clinical trial, leveraging Verily ’s Project Baseline
Otsuka launches pivotal trial of digital therapeutics for depression (MedCity News):
Otsuka Pharmaceutical is launching a virtual study to see if digital therapeutics can reduce depression symptoms.
It’s the next step in a partnership between the Tokyo-based drugmaker and Click Therapeutics, a digital health startup that is developing programs for smoking cessation, depression and insomnia.
They plan to enroll up to 540 patients in a randomized, controlled trial that will test the digital therapeutic’s efficacy in patients that are taking antidepressants. The remote trial will be conducted using Verily’s Project Base...
Source: SharpBrains - March 19, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Technology & Innovation Alphabet antidepressants Click Therapeutics COVID-19 depression digital health Otsuka Project Baseline Verily Source Type: blogs
Happify Health raises $73M to deepen partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and insurance payers
Happify Health raises $73M to expand its digital therapeutic care delivery capabilities (MobiHealth News):
Founded in 2012, Happify is best known for digital programs that provided automated self-guided support across various areas of mental health and wellness, such as stress management for employees or health plan members. Should the user need additional support, the platform can also facilitate a referral to third-party coaching, therapy, telemedicine or other available resources.
In more recent years the platform has expanded to address more than a dozen other chronic conditions, such as heart health and psoriasis, tha...
Source: SharpBrains - March 17, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Technology & Innovation artificial intelligence digital therapeutic solutions digital therapeutics Happify Happify Health mental-wellness pharmaceutical stress-management Source Type: blogs
Five brain teasers to celebrate Brain Awareness Week 2021
Brain Awareness Week 2021 just started. Let’s celebrate by challenging our minds with a few fun brain teasers and illusions 🙂
Here’s a selection of five stimulating brain teasers that readers enjoyed the most so far in 2021:
Where’s the baby? And a couple other surprising illusions
Please complete these proverbs to exercise your brain in familiar and novel ways
Can you connect these pairs of words?
Ready to test your stress level?
Which way is the bus heading?
About Brain Awareness Week:
Every March, Brain Awareness Week (BAW) unites the efforts of partner organizations worldwide in a celebration of the bra...
Source: SharpBrains - March 16, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain Teasers brain-awareness-week cognitive-skills illusions Source Type: blogs
How Wonder and Awe help us transcend self, regulate stress, and improve well-being
What is awe?
We have all experienced it, even if we didn’t know what to call it. Whether we’re overlooking a beautiful view after a challenging hike or watching a new leaf grow on the plant we’ve been nurturing in lockdown, the feeling we get in that moment—amazed, inspired, transported—is what researchers call awe.
In his new book, Awestruck, psychologist Jonah Paquette explains the process underlying the experience of awe and uncovers both its complexity and its value to our well-being. Walking readers through various scientific findings, he shows that awe helps improve our relationships, decrease our stress, a...
Source: SharpBrains - March 10, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greater Good Science Center Tags: Education & Lifelong Learning awe Awestruck be happier book decrease stress Jonah Paquette positive emotions stress-levels Source Type: blogs
Blue Note Therapeutics raises $26M to help treat cancer-related distress via cognitive behavioral stress management (CBSM)
Blue Note Therapeutics Raises $26.25 Million in Series A Financing (press release):
Blue Note Therapeutics, Inc., today announced the closing of a Series A financing round of $26.25 million. Proceeds will allow the company to scale the organization and fund near-term clinical trials of its lead prescription digital therapeutic (PDT), which will potentially improve the treatment of cancer. The capital will also support the development of Blue Note’s pipeline assets. The Series A financing was led by JAZZ Venture Partners and joined by Summer VC.
Blue Note Therapeutics is dedicated to serving patients suffering from cancer...
Source: SharpBrains - March 9, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Technology & Innovation anxiety Blue Note Therapeutics cancer-related distress cancer-treatment depression digital therapeutic Jazz Venture Partners medical devices prescription digital therapeutic psychosocial n Source Type: blogs
Consumer Reports finds unclear, questionable privacy practices and policies among popular mental health apps
Conclusion: Mental health apps show many of the same patterns we see elsewhere in data-collecting apps. However, the sensitivity of the data they collect means the privacy practices and policies are even more important—especially during a pandemic where people are relying on these services in greater numbers for the first time. Our evaluation shows how there are multiple ways to evaluate how thoughtfully mental health apps handle user data collection, management, and sharing to third parties.
We call for all apps to improve on the recommendations highlighted in Section 5—adhere to platform guidelines, institute clear e...
Source: SharpBrains - March 4, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Technology & Innovation 7 Cups BetterHelp consumer-reports ethics mental health apps MindDoc (formerly known as Moodpath) Neurotechnology privacy Sanity & Self Talkspace Wysa Youper Source Type: blogs
How Pixar ’s “Soul” met the Science of Awe
Five years ago, I (Dacher) received a call from Pixar writer and director Pete Docter to talk about his new film. The last time I said yes to such a request, I served as a scientific consultant for his film Inside Out. So, I was intrigued.
Before my visit, Pete offered a brief sketch of the film. The main character, Joe, is a middle-aged jazz pianist in a rut as a middle school band teacher in Queens. Just before his breakthrough show with a famous quartet, he falls into a manhole and dies, entering into another realm of consciousness. There he encounters “The Great Beyond”—but escapes to a pre-life realm, the “Gre...
Source: SharpBrains - March 2, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Greater Good Science Center Tags: Education & Lifelong Learning art awe connection creativity mental states Pixar purpose science soul Source Type: blogs
On Brain Awareness Week, mental health innovation, tDCS, biofeedback, psychedelics, and more
Welcome to a new edition of SharpBrains’ e‑newsletter, starting with some ideas to get in the mood for Brain Awareness Week next month (March 15–21st). May BAW 2021 be a hundred times more upbeat than last year’s…
#1. Seven brain teasers and a neuroplasticity podcast to celebrate Brain Awareness Week 2021
#2. Imagine what this capability may mean just a few years from now. Should/ will Google alert Gmail users about their (future) cognitive status? Study: Artificial intelligence program identifies linguistic markers that predict, with 70% accuracy, who gets Alzheimer’s Disease years later
#3. Similar to wh...
Source: SharpBrains - February 26, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health SharpBrains Monthly eNewsletter Technology & Innovation behavioral biofeedback Brain Teasers cognitive Halo Neuroscience Humanest Care Koa Health mental healthcare Mightier Modern Health neuroplasticity psy Source Type: blogs
