Artificial Intelligence (AI) meets Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Wysa raises $20M to scale up mental health chatbot
Wysa raises $20 million to expand its therapist chatbot into a wider set of mental health services (TechCrunch):
Wysa, a popular mental health app originally founded in India around an AI chatbot that helps users talk through their feelings, has raised $20 million in a Series B funding round to expand its business on the heels of hitting 4.5 million users in 65 countries.
The all-equity round is led by India’s digital health-focused venture capital fund HealthQuad, with participation also from British International Investment (BII), the U.K.’s development finance institution. The plan will be to use the money to double...
Source: SharpBrains - July 19, 2022 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Technology & Innovation AI chatbot British International Investment CBT cognitive-behavioral-therapy digital therapeutics HealthQuad mental health app therapist WhatsApp Wysa Source Type: blogs
Commentators and Journalists Weigh In On Digital Health And Related Privacy, Safety, Social Media And Security Matters. Lots Of Interesting Perspectives - July 19, 2022.
-----This weekly blog is to explore the news around the larger issues around Digital Health, data security, data privacy, AI / ML. technology, social media and related matters.I will also try to highlightADHA Propagandawhen I come upon it.Just so we keep count, the latest Notes from the ADHA Board were dated 6 December, 2018 and we have seen none since! It ’s pretty sad!Note: Appearance here is not to suggest I see any credibility or value in what follows. I will leave it to the reader to decide what is worthwhile and what is not! The point is to let people know what is being said / published that I have come upon.-----h...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - July 19, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David G More MB PhD Source Type: blogs
Weekly Australian Health IT Links – 18 July, 2022.
Here are a few I have come across the last week or so. Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.General Comment-----Aged Care had a good run this week with lots of discussion on just how useful it could be and where the priorities lay. Some fools were wittering on about how helpful the #myHR can be in this setting!Telehealth went and came back!The James Webb Telescope humbled us all with images for an age!-----https://itwire.com/science-news/he...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - July 18, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David G More MB PhD Source Type: blogs
Biopsychological pain management is not enough
I recently read a preprint of an editorial for Pain, the IASP journal. It was written by Prof Michael Nicholas, and the title reads “The biopsychosocial model of pain 40 years on: time for a reappraisal?” The paper outlines when and how pain became conceptualised within a biopsychosocial framework by the pioneers of interprofessional pain management: John Loeser (1982) and Gordon Waddell (1984). Nicholas points out the arguments against a biopsychosocial model with some people considering that despite it being a “holistic” framework, it often gets applied in a biomedical and psychological way. In ot...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - July 17, 2022 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Back pain Chronic pain Coping strategies Interdisciplinary teams Low back pain Motivation Occupational therapy Physiotherapy Psychology Science in practice Therapeutic approaches biopsychosocial pain management Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 18th 2022
In conclusion, we show that PVS morphology in mice is variable and that the structure and function of pia suggests a previously unrecognized role in regulating CSF transport and amyloid clearance in aging and disease.
Reversing Ovarian Fibrosis in Mice
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2022/07/reversing-ovarian-fibrosis-in-mice/
Researchers here provide evidence for ovarian fibrosis to be an important mechanism in limiting the age at which female mammals can remain fertile. Interestingly, existing antifibrotic drugs can produce some reversal of this fibrosis, enough to restore ovulation in mice. Fibro...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 17, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
How Does Systemic Inflammation in the Body Cause Neuroinflammation in the Brain?
The chronic inflammation of aging is harmful, disruptive of tissue structure and function, altering cell behavior for the worse. The immune system reacts to many of the varied signs of molecular damage that become prevalent in old tissues, such as DNA debris from dying cells, and the result is unresolved inflammatory signaling. Neurodegenerative conditions in particular appear to be driven by inflammation, but given that the brain is separated from the body by the blood-brain barrier, and the immune systems of brain and body are also distinct and separate, how is it that inflammation in the body generates neuroinflammation...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 13, 2022 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Inside Vida Health ’s Move Into Musculoskeletal Care
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
In the ‘point solution versus platform’ debate, mark another score for integration as Vida Health jumps into the musculoskeletal (MSK) care space. This is a move we’ve seen before among the digital health chronic condition management set (remember when Omada acquired Physera, Dario Health acquired Upright, and everyone was waiting to see if Livongo would make a play for Sword or Hinge?) so why is Vida just jumping in now?
Dr. Patrick Carroll, Vida Health’s Chief Medical Officer, lets us in on the strategy behind the startup’s move into the MSK space and what it signals about h...
Source: The Health Care Blog - July 12, 2022 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Health Tech Health Technology Jessica DaMassa WTF Health Jess DaMassa MSK musculoskeletal care Patrick Carroll vida health Source Type: blogs
Scopes, roles, interprofessional practice and person-centred healthcare
A topic that almost immediately gets my hackles up is the one of scopes and roles in pain management and rehabilitation. It’s like “Oooh but that’s MY stuff, get out of it!” and I can see Gollum saying “my preciousssss”…
I trained and graduated in 1984. As a raw newbie occupational therapist I couldn’t articulate much of what my profession brought to healthcare, except that I knew “doing”, “activities” or “occupation” was important to human wellbeing, and that I’d been trained to analyse these. I’ve learned a lot since then a...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - July 10, 2022 Category: Anesthesiology Authors: BronnieLennoxThompson Tags: Assessment Clinical reasoning Interdisciplinary teams Professional topics Research Science in practice Chronic pain Health healthcare interprofessional pain management teamwork Therapeutic approaches Source Type: blogs
Caregivers Can Troubleshoot and Empathize Without “Fixing” Everything
Photo credit Andrea Picquadio
Dear Carol: My mom, now 87, voluntarily moved to assisted living three years ago. She said at the time that she loved it. She continues to have chronic pain from rheumatoid arthritis and takes medications for the usual age-related issues. Even though she forgets things more often than she used to, she doesn’t seem to have dementia. Lately, though, she’s started complaining about being “forced” to move to “this place,” saying that she hates it. Of course, she likes some caregivers better than others, but nothing major seems to have changed regarding her care. I visit several t...
Source: Minding Our Elders - July 3, 2022 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Update: Playing videogames may be more cognitively beneficial than other forms of screentime like social media, watching videos/ TV
Welcome to a new edition of SharpBrains’ e‑newsletter, featuring timely brain & mental health news and a fun brain teaser to put your temporal lobes to good use 🙂
#1. Study finds that playing videogames may be more cognitively beneficial for children than other forms of screentime (social media, watching videos/ TV)
“Here, we estimated the impact of different types of screen time (watching, socializing, or gaming) on children’s intelligence while controlling for the confounding effects of genetic differences in cognition and socioeconomic status … Broadly, our results are in line with research on the malle...
Source: SharpBrains - June 30, 2022 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health Education & Lifelong Learning Technology & Innovation anxiety brain health brain-teaser chronic pain cognition cognitive cognitive-functioning Cognitive-tests Cognitive-Training depression emotion FDA men Source Type: blogs
Supreme Court Sets Higher Bar for Prosecuting Doctors Who Prescribe Opioids for Pain
Jeffrey A. SingerToday the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned lower court decisions in the consolidated cases ofRuan vs. United States and Kahn vs. United States. The two physicians were convicted of prescribing opioid pain medicine “outside the usual course of [medical] treatment” and were sentenced to prison.The jury inRuan was not instructed to consider Dr. Xiulu Ruan ’s “good‐faith defense,” i.e., that he was indeed prescribing the drug “legitimately” to treat pain based upon his good‐faith assessments of his patients’ medical contexts and requirements. The Eleventh Circuit Appeals Cour...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - June 27, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey A. Singer Source Type: blogs
5 Ways to Get an Older Adult to Smile
Photo credit Pexels - Beytlik
Despite increasing awareness of and sensitivity to ageism in our society, age-related stereotypes about stubborn, grumpy seniors persist. Chronic health conditions, changes in functioning, and the loss of loved ones pose physical and emotional challenges that can bring even the most cheerful elders down from time to time, but depression and irritability are not normal parts of aging. In fact, research shows that perceptions of life and overall happiness actually tend to improve with age.
The rollercoaster of life is full of ups and downs at all ages. During these fleeting low points, it is nat...
Source: Minding Our Elders - June 22, 2022 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
The New Buzz: These Are The Top Examples Of Digital Therapeutics
Digital Therapeutics or DTx in short is one of the latest buzzwords in the digital health ecosystem. Unlike others (NFT, Metaverse just to name a few) however, we see DTx as a meaningful trend that has the capacity to bring short-term, substantial improvements in personalised healthcare.
What is Digital Therapeutics?
The definition by the Digital Therapeutics Alliance, the main professional hub is:
“Digital therapeutics (DTx) deliver evidence-based therapeutic interventions that are driven by high-quality software programs to prevent, manage, or treat a medical disorder or disease. They are used inde...
Source: The Medical Futurist - June 21, 2022 Category: Information Technology Authors: Andrea Koncz Tags: TMF Digital Health Research Future of Medicine Health Sensors & Trackers Telemedicine & Smartphones software chronic pain apps cancer care mental health DTx digital therapeutics eczema Atopic dermatitis sleep disorders Source Type: blogs
Flexible Microprobe for Neural Interfacing
Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a tiny neural probe that is approximately one fifth of the width of a human hair. The probe is flexible and can be implanted for extended periods without aggravating the immune system, in part because of its small and unobtrusive profile.
Its miniature size means that it may also be suitable for implantation in areas where other probes can’t fit, such as between the vertebrae and into the spinal cord. Containing an electrical channel and an optical channel, the coaxial probe can both record electrical activity from neurons and also stimulate the ne...
Source: Medgadget - June 20, 2022 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Neurology Neurosurgery Source Type: blogs
LVH and Anterior ST Elevation: is it OMI and would you activate the cath lab?
Written by Jesse McLaren (@ECGCases), with comments by Smith and Grauer A 50 year old presented with chest pain radiating to the shoulder. They had a history of an LAD stent 10 years ago and alcohol use disorder, with repeated visits for chest pain and two code STEMIs two years ago that found no occlusive disease. What do you think? There ’s normal sinus rhythm, normal intervals, normal axis, and normal R wave progression. There’s LVH with repolarization abnormalities, including discordant ST depression and T wave inversion inferolaterally and discordant ST elevation and tall T wave in V2. Are there...
Source: Dr. Smith's ECG Blog - June 20, 2022 Category: Cardiology Authors: Jesse McLaren Source Type: blogs
