What You Should Know:

• SocialClimb, a leader in the patient acquisition industry, and IncludeHealth, a leading digital musculoskeletal (MSK) solution provider, today announced a partnership that promises to redefine the orthopedic patient marketing experience.
• Through this collaboration, SocialClimb’s orthopedic clientele will have access to a state-of-the-art digital self-assessment tool provided by IncludeHealth, that boosts online conversions and draws new patients to practices.

Redefining the Orthopedic Marketing Experience

“Our mission at SocialClimb has always been to enable our customers to attract the patients they need for growth, said Ty Allen, CEO of SocialClimb. “Bringing IncludeHealth’s patented computer vision capabilities into the marketing tools we offer is changing the way orthopedic patients engage with practices creating a differentiated patient experience.”

By combining SocialClimb’s reputation management and patient acquisition capabilities with IncludeHealth’s computer vision platform, orthopedic practices can now provide potential patients with a compelling initial online experience. This seamless interaction not only elevates patient trust, but also significantly boosts online conversion rates.

Patients simply click a link, select a focus area and are guided through IncludeHealth’s interactive movement assessment on their own device. Computer vision analyzes their movement, measures their range of motion and provides instant feedback. This creates an engaging first patient experience while also collecting meaningful health data that is shared with both the patient and the practice to determine appropriate next steps.

What You Should Know: 

– Vizient acquires PrefTech OR, a next-generation, cloud-based preference card management (PCM) software that helps healthcare providers optimize their operating rooms to increase workflow efficiency, lower costs and improve patient care. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. 

– PrefTech OR continuously monitors preference card quality, automatically generates actionable guidance and identifies savings opportunities. 

Importance of Physician Preference Cards

Operating rooms are among hospitals’ largest cost centers, and they also generate more than 50% of their annual revenue. Physician preference cards are an essential part of every surgical service department as they contain detailed information about each surgeon’s preferences for medical supplies, instruments and room set up for surgery. Inaccurate information can result in improper room setups that create supply waste, increase labor costs and delay patient care. 

 A physician preference card solution is critical for capturing unique data sets in the perioperative setting across all types of providers. The acquisition supports Vizient’s strategy to advance a comprehensive Spend Management approach. In addition, the acquisition will help providers identify opportunities to reduce clinical variation across similar procedures and create operational efficiencies, leading to fewer wasted supplies and room set up delays, greater billing accuracy and opportunities for standardization across procedures, all of which can improve clinical outcomes and revenue.

What You Should Know:

• Rymedi, a healthcare data exchange platform with advanced blockchain security, has announced a Series A totaling $9 million with plans to expand the reach of their platform.
• The round was co-led by RW3 Ventures and White Star Capital with participation from Blockchange Ventures, Avalanche’s Blizzard Fund, and strategic angel investors from the healthcare industry. Rymedi, which serves over 1 million patients in over 1,200 locations across the US, Africa, and Australia, will use the financing to increase data security and healthcare record accessibility for patients while reducing data entry errors and costs for healthcare data infrastructures on a global scale. 

Using Financing to Increase Data Security and Healthcare Record Accessibility

“We are always searching for great teams that are using blockchain technology to solve real-world problems with the potential to address global markets,” said Pete Najarian, Managing Partner of RW3 Ventures. “The Rymedi team and product suite fit that thesis perfectly, and we are delighted to be on this journey with them. While healthcare data management has remained inefficient and expensive, we believe Rymedi’s blockchain-based solution is having a meaningful impact on cost, connectivity, security, and user experience.”

The Rymedi platform, which currently supports Clemson University and many other large organizations throughout the world, removes the friction of a manual, paper filled operation to quickly connect with customers and patients and scale lab processes with higher testing throughput and lower total cost of ownership.

In the areas of occupational health, clinical trials, and laboratory information management systems, it automates data transfer with flexible interoperability, streamlines data entry with real-time results, and meets global regulatory compliance standards with unrivaled security. This is all made possible by Rymedi’s innovative blockchain-based backend, which is uniquely suited to facilitate data access across multiple parties and platforms. 

What You Should Know:

• Harmonic Health, announced the launch of its comprehensive, evidence-based, dementia care model that bridges gaps in care by bringing together advanced technology and an expert care team to partner with physician, to provide comprehensive care management and support patients and caregivers facing neurodegenerative diseases. 
• Harmonic launched its initial services with Stoney Batter Family Medicine, a trusted family medical practice serving over 24,000 patients within the Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland region.

Using Technology to Improve the Care of Patients with Neurodegenerative Diseases

Built at Redesign Health, Harmonic empowers and supports PCPs and neurologists in managing the impact of cognitive decline for Alzheimer’s, dementia and Parkinson’s patients. Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach, Harmonic addresses the medical, behavioral, and social aspects of dementia care. As part of the initial program pilot with Stoney Batter, Stoney Batter physicians and their patients receive dedicated dementia care expertise and resources that includes caregiver support and coaching, dementia screening, patient education, and referral for community services. Harmonic is seeing early program demand, with an 80% patient enrollment rate.

“I know from personal experience that the current situation for treating patients with neurodegenerative diseases is ineffective, unsupportive and deeply frustrating. Patients and caregivers lack support and physicians lack the resources to provide comprehensive care,” said Harmonic CEO and Co-Founder Jim Gera. “At Harmonic, our goal is to provide that missing support and bridge the gap in care by treating each patient and caregiver with candor, dignity and empathy while focusing care specifically through the lens of the disease.”

The U.S. is grappling with an unseen challenge from patients and families impacted by Alzheimer’s, dementia and Parkinson’s, with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services emphasizing dementia care as a major priority.  Currently, Alzheimer’s and other dementias affect over 6.7 million Americans, costing $655 billion annually. Despite the growing prevalence of these conditions, care and treatment options remain limited and fragmented. Primary care physicians (PCPs) face significant challenges in providing care with over 75% of these patients managed by their PCPs, and 50% of PCPs feeling unprepared to meet increased patient demand.

What You Should Know:

• Weave, a leading all-in-one experience platform for small and medium-sized healthcare practices, today announces the addition of AI-driven voicemail transcriptions to its Phones offering.
• Now available to Weave’s 27,000+ customers, Voicemail Transcription will enhance Weave Phones by automatically transcribing voicemails from patients, allowing for efficient, visible, and private reading experiences of voicemails. With this update, users will now see the voicemail transcription on the SMS & Email Notification page, improving overall user experience by making it faster to consume messages without having to listen to the audio, which can often be difficult in busy settings.

AI-Driven Voicemail Transcriptions to Enhance Private Reading Experiences of Voicemails

“AI has exploded in popularity over the past year, and we’re taking steps to ensure Weave is delivering state of the art offerings that empower our customers to enhance patient experiences and deliver top of the line care,” said Branden Neish, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Weave. “AI will only continue to grow in popularity and daily use, which will have a transformative impact on the future of the healthcare industry. Weave customers that have already implemented AI into their practices claim they save an average of an hour a day with the technology.”

This announcement follows months of AI-driven activity from Weave to enhance features that allow healthcare providers to deliver quality care and improve patient experiences. In a new customer and consumer report conducted by Weave, the company found that people are accepting of AI in healthcare settings and they see it leading to enhanced care and patient experiences. In fact, the majority of consumers (65%) are open to providers using AI tools in their practices. The report also found that consumers and providers are aligned with how they think AI will impact the healthcare industry, with two in three consumers (67%) and 3 in 4 (75%) healthcare providers believing that AI is likely to become a prevalent tool in healthcare.

Breast cancer awareness is essential for early detection, which is critical for improving survival rates and reducing the burden of this disease. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but education and awareness should not be limited to just one month of the year. A large portion of the global population will experience or be impacted by breast cancer; one in eight women will face a diagnosis in their lives, and this affects both them and their families.

Exciting advancements in the realm of breast cancer detection, such as predictive medicine, value-based care, and artificial intelligence (AI), are on the horizon. There is enormous potential to revolutionize early detection methods, offering not just a reduction in pain and suffering, but also in the financial burdens associated with cancer care and treatment. Annual mammography has long been seen as the gold standard for reducing breast cancer deaths since its introduction in the 1980s, but now the landscape is shifting, and the new era of breast cancer detection is here.

Software and the latest technological advancements enable personalized, optimized, and automated breast cancer detection. AI holds a promising role in the future of prediction and prevention, breaking barriers by turning subjective decisions into objective ones. This advanced technology can take on tasks like repetitive quantification in areas such as image-quality analytics, audit preparations, automated breast density assessment, and evidence-based risk assessment to improve early detection methods.

There is a significant barrier that hinders the promises made by technology to improve breast cancer detection: awareness, particularly in younger women. In the United States, the median age of breast cancer diagnosis is 62 years, but around 9% of cases are diagnosed in women under the age of 45 and these women often have more aggressive cancers diagnosed at a later stage, when treatment is less successful. When routine screening for breast cancer does not begin until the ages of 40-45, women under 40 are at risk of not receiving the care they need. The experts agree that cancer risk assessments should be completed by the age of 25 yet this is not routinely done in the US. Younger women should have the knowledge and support to complete these assessments as they can help preserve their well-being and understand their bodies.

Breast cancer awareness and early detection are essential for improving survival rates and reducing the burden of this disease. New technologies, such as AI, have the potential to revolutionize breast cancer detection, but it is important to ensure that everyone has access to these technologies and the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about their health.

About Teri Thomas, CEO and Managing Director at Volpara Health

Thomas is an American, based in NZ . She has a long history of executive management in healthcare IT ranging from strategy and operations to running global sales & marketing teams. This includes a 20-year career at Epic, a global healthcare systems provider.  Thomas was instrumental in growing the company from under 100 employees with little market recognition to over 10,000 employees. Thomas is also a registered nurse with a Master of Science degree, which gives her a unique perspective on the intersection of IT, clinician workflow and patient experience. Previously, she held executive roles with population health firm Orion Health and IT innovation at University of North Carolina Health Care. Thomas was a key member of the decision-making team behind Volpara successfully acquiring Harvard spin-out CRA Health in February 2021. Her focus is now helping the company to serve its purpose of saving lives, while driving profitable growth.

The accelerating advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) have ignited a new era of innovation and potential across various industries. Healthcare is a sector that stands to gain tremendously from this revolution. Here are eight specific ways AI will transform the future of healthcare, making it more efficient, personalized, and proactive.

1. Improved Diagnosis and Disease Detection

One of the most critical applications of AI in healthcare is augmenting the process of diagnosing diseases. Machine Learning (ML) algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data to detect patterns and anomalies that might be overlooked by human eyes. For instance, AI algorithms are now being trained to interpret medical images, such as mammograms or lung CT scans, and are showing promising results in the early detection of cancers. 

2. Personalized Medicine

AI is paving the way for personalized medicine, where treatments are tailored to individual patients based on their genetic makeup, lifestyle, and other factors. For example, AI can analyze a patient’s genomic data to predict their response to specific drugs, thereby optimizing treatment plans and minimizing adverse effects.

3. Enhanced Drug Discovery

Traditional drug discovery is a time-consuming and expensive process. AI can accelerate this by predicting how different compounds will behave and their potential effectiveness against certain diseases. Companies are using AI to predict the suitability of millions of compounds for drug development, reducing both the time and cost involved in bringing a new drug to market.

4. Predictive Analytics in Patient Monitoring

AI-powered wearable devices and home monitoring systems are enabling real-time patient monitoring, allowing for early intervention and improved patient outcomes. For instance, AI algorithms can analyze data from wearable devices to detect anomalies such as abnormal heart rhythms, potentially predicting conditions like atrial fibrillation before they become critical.

5. AI-Enabled Virtual Health Assistants

Virtual Health Assistants (VHAs), such as chatbots and virtual nurses, are improving patient engagement and healthcare accessibility. These AI-powered platforms can answer health queries, remind patients to take their medication, or even guide them through symptom checkers, providing valuable support in between doctor visits.

6. Robotic Surgery

Robotic surgery is another area where AI is making a significant impact. Robots, when combined with AI, can perform complex surgeries with precision and consistency unmatched by human surgeons. The da Vinci Surgical System, for example, has already assisted in over six million surgeries worldwide, reducing surgical complications and recovery times.

7. Streamlining Administrative Tasks

AI can automate routine administrative tasks, reducing the burden on healthcare professionals and allowing them to focus on patient care. AI can help in managing appointments, billing, and insurance claims. For instance, companies are now using process automation to handle repetitive tasks, freeing up staff time and reducing errors.

8. Reducing Clinician Documentation Time

AI is demonstrating significant potential in the automation of clinical charting and can interpret and transcribe clinician-patient interactions. This not only saves healthcare providers a considerable amount of time but also improves the accuracy of medical records. Providers are now using real-time speech recognition and transcription, to turn conversations into structured notes. An AI-driven approach to clinical charting promises to free clinicians from the burden of paperwork, allowing them to devote more time to patient care.

The integration of AI into healthcare presents vast opportunities for improved patient care, efficiency, and innovation. However, it’s essential to address potential challenges such as data security, ethics, and ensure the technology is used to augment, not replace, the human touch in healthcare. As we navigate this exciting frontier, the potential for AI to revolutionize healthcare is nothing short of transformative.

About Palak Shah 
Palak is a co-founder and Head of Clinical Services at Luna, the leading in-home physical therapy platform. Palak is a passionate healthcare leader with orthopedic specialist board certification and physical therapist for 15+ years. Starting out as an outpatient physical therapist, Palak obtained Orthopedic specialization from the American Board of Physical Therapy Specialists in 2014. She spent the next 4 years at Stanford Hospital as a senior physical therapist treating complex musculoskeletal conditions and co-lectured at the Stanford PT residency program. Palak leads clinical vision and strategy with a focus on operational excellence and patient experience. She excels in data & technology-driven approaches for scalable clinical products and program design that improve accessibility to quality healthcare.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the biomedical community took on the task of developing and deploying critical interventions to address an unprecedented public health emergency. In a remarkable display of collective effort, stakeholders from government and industry came together to produce safe and effective mRNA vaccines as well as therapeutics– a groundbreaking achievement reached in record time. As the biomedical community looks to the future, government agencies have a tremendous opportunity to build on lessons learned and seize the momentum to accelerate biomedical innovation and attain beneficial public health and scientific outcomes. There is no shortage of health and research challenges to address.

Government leaders can continue to embrace their power to scale, speed and strengthen the biomedical research ecosystem by embracing three specific roles.

Role #1: Convene the Full Continuum of Stakeholders

Collaborative versus siloed research endeavors can yield results faster for patients. Public-private partnerships within the biomedical ecosystem have long prioritized the sharing of critical assets, expertise and knowledge. However, the COVID-19 response (best illustrated by the ACTIV partnership convened by the FNIH) revealed how successfully these partners can work together when equipped with the necessary resources. When fully optimized, partnerships can help reduce costs and speed time to market. Government can enable this optimization by identifying the right players, defining their roles, and providing critical resources. 

These collaborators could benefit from working toward common goals and breaking down existing silos of information. The Cancer Moonshot, launched by the Obama-Biden Administration in 2016, and now led by President Biden serves as a formidable example. It aims to accelerate cancer research, prevention, diagnosis and treatment by improving and incentivizing collaboration across different sectors – and by removing traditional barriers between different organizations throughout the biomedical ecosystem. It also has a bird’s eye view of the system, something we don’t focus on enough. 

Role #2: Focus on Patients and Communities

To spur innovation, government leaders should engage patients and provide key roles for them throughout the research process. Patients offer invaluable and unique insight into their conditions. They should be included in discussions and process mapping from the start – an effort that the government can help encourage. 

One recent example of patient engagement comes from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL). Established in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CEAL initiative seeks feedback from patients to address the disparities and challenges that exist in underserved and vulnerable communities. CEAL exemplifies the value and importance of community engagement and helps build the trust that’s necessary for an effective public health response effort. Crucially, it also aims to improve health equity. 

Role #3: Fund Collaborative Infrastructure

With its substantial funding mechanisms and its wide range of programs, the government is well-positioned to address major ecosystem challenges. But government’s previous methods to incentivize innovation and biomedical research don’t meet today’s growing needs. 

Budgets matter and studies have shown that targeted, disease-specific public research funding influences the private sector to increase funding as well. The government can also offer researchers the resources needed to take giant leaps and, if necessary, provide safe environments to fail and quickly recalibrate. Endeavors such as the newly created Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) foster a culture of experimentation and risk-taking, which spurs research, development and testing of transformational technologies and medicines. 

The Promising Path Ahead

While the biomedical research ecosystem comprises a complex network of interconnected stakeholders, effective collaboration between government, industry and academia can and has driven noteworthy accomplishments in biomedical research and public health. Working together, the research community can realize unparalleled innovation by dedicating the proper resources to collaboration and ensuring that patients’ voices are not just heard but valued – ensuring the government can serve as a significant catalyst.

About Margaret Anderson
Margaret Anderson is a managing director at Deloitte Consulting LLP, where she focuses on advancing treatments and interventions for patients and helping improve the outcomes and efficiency of healthcare research and delivery systems. She currently serves on President Biden’s National Cancer Advisory Board and sits on the boards of the ACT for the NIH Foundation, the Allen Institute, FasterCures, and Friends of Cancer Research.

What You Should Know:

– CipherHealth, a provider of patient-centered engagement launches a new strategic initiative to leverage Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform to revolutionize hospital operations and patient care.

– CipherHealth is building, training, deploying, and managing machine learning and AI models across products and across the spectrum of care.

Google Cloud’s Vertex AI to Accelerate Development of AI and Machine Learning Models

CipherHealth selected Google Cloud to facilitate a holistic approach to machine learning. Through Vertex AI, sitting on a foundation of secure, interoperable data, Cipherhealth’s data science team can fully construct, fine-tune, oversee and integrate machine learning models into various business processes. They are designed to cater to diverse modalities, such as free text (natural language), voice, vision, and tabular data. The entire initiative exists on CipherHealth’s HiTrust-certified Evolve Platform.

These AI solutions will aim to dramatically accelerate issue resolution, power sophisticated patient experiences, enhance automation, and lead with bi-directional communication. Ultimately, CipherHealth plans to use AI to create personalized care pathways for patients at all stages of care. The highly tuned model will engage, analyze, and adapt to the patient’s inputs to deliver timely insights to clinicians and an intuitive, empathetic experience for patients.

“We’re thrilled to leverage the full power of AI and machine learning to help healthcare leaders improve patient experience, staff satisfaction, and hospital operations,” said Nate Perry-Thistle, CipherHealth Chief Product & Technology Officer. “This important step will empower us to change the paradigm of patient engagement and help hospitals drive transformative growth.”

What You Should Know:

– Abridge, a company leading the way in generative AI for healthcare raises $30M in Series B funding led by Spark Capital, along with several leading healthcare innovators, including Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, CVS Health Ventures, UC Investments, Lifepoint Health, SCAN Health Plan, and the American College of Cardiology.

– Abridge’s generative AI scribe automatically converts a patient-clinician conversation into a structured clinical note draft in real-time, leveraging their proprietary AI pipeline.

“I want to care for patients, not paperwork.”

The solution has been proven to save clinicians over two hours per day from administrative burdens that previously took time away from patients and detracted from clinician work-life balance. In recent implementations, over 91% of notes across over 40 specialties were drafted solely with their AI, requiring minimal input from the clinician. The solution has been uniquely designed with trust and auditability, providing the ability to quickly see source data from any AI-generated summary.

Expansion Plans

The company plans to use the latest round of funding to support large-scale health system rollouts and accelerate product advances that will create additional value for patients, clinicians, and health systems.

“The investment and support of these iconic institutions is a game-changer for Abridge, dramatically accelerating what we can do to solve a critical issue facing every health system,” said Dr. Shiv Rao, co-founder and CEO of Abridge. “We are grateful to have an extraordinary and rapidly expanding group of partners who share our ambition to preserve the empathy and humanity in healthcare by enabling clinicians to be more present with their patients.”

What You Should Know:

– Found, a medically-assisted weight loss program launches Found Assistant, a generative AI guide within the Found app that offers members the ability to ask questions and discover instant and relevant information on nutrition, movement, health habits, and more.

– Found Assistant is available 24/7 to provide personalized guidance throughout members’ journeys and further support them in reaching their weight and health goals. During its soft launch in September, nearly one-third of beta users had more than one conversation with Found Assistant.

Power Instant Personalized Weight Guidance with Launch of Found Assistant

Over 70% of adults aged 20 and above in the U.S. have excess weight or obesity and are typically provided with the same outdated medical advice by well-intentioned primary care providers: balanced diet, exercise, and willpower. Just 50% of people adhere to long-term medical treatment plans, including taking prescribed medication, following a balanced diet, and executing lifestyle changes. Difficulty creating and keeping new routines, especially when it relates to weight care, happens for various reasons: some find it challenging to maintain a balanced diet while on the go, while others may need further guidance to fit movement into their daily schedules.

To better address these issues, Found Assistant supports the most challenging moments of member weight care journeys. Eliminating the overwhelm and labor associated with scattershot internet search results, Found Assistant instantly provides relevant educational information and personalized fitness routines, new recipes, lifestyle tips, curated guidance, and more based on member prompts, health histories, and personal preferences. For a member staying in a hotel with limited gym equipment, Found Assistant support and guidance is easily accessible and malleable. For example, it can automatically provide workouts that adapt to the member’s environmental change and help prevent the member from veering off their fitness routine.

“Found Assistant generative AI technology adapts to addressing behavior change and the user’s personal needs faster than any obesity practitioner in a brick or mortar setting or any digital health setting,” said Alex Linares, Chief Product Officer of Found. “Weight care journeys are inherently challenging, requiring dedication to new routines and guidance to achieve intended health outcomes. Found Assistant delivers an instant, personalized member experience that integrates well with the rest of the member experience at Found.”

Within the Found app, members can leverage an open-type field to prompt the Found Assistant with specific questions or use preset buttons to populate prompts for recipes, workout routines, meal plans, and habit-building. Members can review past saved conversations within the app, and all conversations with Found Assistant are kept anonymous. Found Assistant will continue to advance and provide opportunities to reshape and refine the weight loss industry for the better.

We are living in a mental health epidemic. An estimated 26 percent of Americans ages 18 and older – about one in four adults – suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year. Among mental disorders, cases of PTSD are on the rise. Roughly five percent of American adults suffer from PTSD in any given year and more than 13 million Americans reported PTSD in 2020 – most of whom are women. Standard PTSD treatments most often come in the form of pharmacotherapy or psychotherapy and include a cocktail of anti-depressant drugs, prolonged exposure therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing and cognitive behavioral therapy. These treatment modalities have proven effective for many patients, and yet, PTSD is a unique journey for every patient, each of whom needs specialized treatment plans to meet their needs. 

A 2022 academic review showed that the effect sizes during clinical trials of both new psychotherapies and pharmacotherapies in mental disorders were small in comparison to the previously adopted ‘treatment as usual’ or a placebo. This study demonstrated that while current therapies work for many patients, they are not favored by all patients. Pharmacotherapy options often result in adverse side effects which can impact treatment retention, while psychotherapy can prove challenging for patients when they relive their experiences. We must embrace the latest medical innovations that have proven themselves in other areas of care to provide a third option for patients in need of a solution. 

Unlocking Biomarker-Based Mental Disorder Treatment 

As an objective and measurable biological signal of bodily processes, biomarkers are indications of conditions and diseases and have been used successfully throughout fields of medicine. From indicating of the presence of disease, to clinical trial matching, to measuring the efficacy of new and novel treatments, and enabling personalized treatment. Today, researchers utilize as many as seven distinct categories of biomarkers, including diagnostic, predictive and monitoring. 

While biomarkers have been used to advance many areas of care, the creation and adoption of brain biomarkers to identify, treat and manage neurological disorders has remained comparatively low due to several biological barriers. Biomarkers rely on blood, tissue, or urine samples, while neurological biomarkers are present in cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) but are often at undetectable levels in blood. While biomarkers can be developed and measured using various biological samples, this requires invasive procedures and consequently is not a viable treatment for many patients. The brain is also protected by the blood–brain barrier, shielding this crucial organ from harmful substances circulating in the bloodstream, making brain activity inaccessible to a blood test. 

Recognizing the potential value of biomarker-based neurological treatment and management, clinicians and product innovators have utilized existing technologies used to monitor brain activity, which include electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). EEG is a low-cost modality that measures brain electrical activity on the scalp through a patient-worn cap with electrodes, however, EEG is not able to measure electrical activity in deep brain regions. On the other hand, fMRI scanners are used to measure blood oxygenation (known as BOLD signal) in deep-lying specific brain regions but are expensive and complex to operate. 

While progress has been made in developing EEG-only solutions for brain biomarkers, this has been stalled by the inability to measure deep brain activity. As a result, the field of neurology was left for decades without a scalable and effective solution for monitoring deep brain activity, limiting our ability to diagnose and treat mental disorders. But recently, researchers made breakthrough discoveries to combine EEG and fMRI into scalable, affordable and portable solutions. This innovative, scientific mechanism will soon become a leading modality used to treat mental disorder treatment.  

In 2014, a study in NeuroImage introduced a novel imaging approach using fMRI-inspired EEG analysis. The results introduced a neurological biomarker that is calculated by identifying EEG features that correlate to activation levels of specific brain region processes associated with mental disorders as seen in fMRI. The biomarker was developed by performing a series of simultaneous acquisitions of datasets of EEG and fMRI under specific psychological paradigms. The EEG and fMRI voxel data of brain regions associated with mental disorders of interest were then fused using advanced statistical models to produce the biomarker. 

This development may mark a significant breakthrough for mental disorder care, transforming neuro-biomarkers from inaccessible bio-based signals to technology-powered brain activity indicators. For the first time, monitoring of biomarkers of activity associated with deep brain regions in a non-invasive, scalable and affordable model has become a reality and the field of mental disorder care is set for transformation. 

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Using Biomarkers to Follow Brain Activity 

Similar to biomarkers in other medical applications, neuro-biomarkers can shed light on the inner workings of brain activity without directly altering the neural state. In doing so, we can better understand the underlying mechanisms of mental disorders in response to triggers and design better treatments. An amygdala-based biomarker is just the first example of many that demonstrate the power of biomarker-based treatment for specific brain regions. 

There are thousands of published studies indicating the amygdala’s role in mental disorders. The amygdala is the control center of the fight-flight-freeze response – a response to stressful, frightening or dangerous events that dictates how the body responds to danger. The hyper-reactive amygdala has been clinically shown to play a significant role in PTSD, General Anxiety Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, and Borderline Personality Disorder. 

By utilizing tech-powered biomarker-based treatments that are based on specific brain regions – such as the amygdala – clinicians can provide a real-time data-based approach to treatment with greater clarity into a patient’s underlying mechanisms. With access to measurable insights, clinicians can provide customized treatment and with accurate and measurable insights, can power our approach to mental disorder care. In the long term, this can be utilized across a variety of mental disorders and better determine the best course of treatment, whether psychotherapy or pharmacotherapy and monitor their progress to enhance overall outcomes. 

We are beginning to see a monumental shift in mental disorder treatment. Embracing brain region or mechanism-specific neurological biomarkers to treat dysregulated underlying brain mechanisms, provides a third option of care that can augment existing pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy modalities. As a tech-based solution, neurological biomarkers can be used as a core asset along with the advances in automation and machine learning and create modalities that will continue to evolve with time and address other neurological conditions beyond mental disorders. In doing so we can continue to support mental healthcare professionals in providing patients the most effective and impactful treatment.  

About Oded Kraft 

Oded Kraft is the Co-Founder and CEO of GrayMatters Health and has over 25 years of international experience in global high-tech innovation and business development of both startups and large corporates that focus on medical device innovation. Before establishing GrayMatters Health, Mr. Kraft worked in executive business development roles within Roche and GE Healthcare and has also served on the board of several medical device companies in the EU, Israel and the US. Mr. Kraft holds an MBA and a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel.

What You Should Know:

– Butterfly Network, a digital health provider of chip-powered handheld ultrasound technology, and Forest Neurotech, a tech research company has signed a $20M five-year agreement to develop a first-of-its-kind, minimally invasive implantable for imaging and stimulating the brain with ultrasound, powered by Butterfly’s chip technology. 

– Forest Neurotech is backed by Convergent Research, the Schmidt Futures Network, and Caltech, and the collaboration is part of Butterfly’s newly launched Butterfly Garden – a marketplace that facilitates partnerships with hardware and software developers seeking to build new technologies using Butterfly’s proprietary Ultrasound-on-Chip technology.  

Partnership Details

The agreement includes $20MM to be paid to Butterfly for annual licensing, chip purchases, services and milestone payments, of which $3.5MM was received on signing. Additional revenue is anticipated for every unit sold upon commercialization. Forest Neurotech is the latest Focused Research Organization to be created as part of Convergent Research, an incubator for ambitious scientific non-profits and member of the Schmidt Futures Network. Convergent Research recently announced $50M in new philanthropic support. 

Real-Time Imaging of Entire Brain

Roughly the diameter of a quarter, the device will create real-time imaging of the entire brain, offering unprecedented insights into complex and hard-to-treat neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, OCD and depression, among many others. Importantly, this technology is less invasive than traditional approaches to brain imaging and stimulation.  

 “Forest Neurotech is an exemplary partner that validates the vision behind Butterfly Garden. We opened our imaging platform for co-development to encourage and expedite innovation that captures the full potential of Butterfly’s disruptive chip technology through new applications and in adjacent markets. By bringing our chip into the neurotech implantables space, this partnership does exactly that,” said Joseph DeVivo, Butterfly Network’s President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman.   

What You Should Know:

– Talkspace, an online behavioral health company, announced the appointment of Nikole Benders-Hadi, MD, as Chief Medical Officer.

– As CMO, Dr. Benders-Hadi will lead Talkspace’s clinical practice, partnering with providers to deliver the highest quality digital mental health care as Talkspace continues to grow and scale.

– She will be pivotal in elevating the company’s clinical offering, including leveraging clinical data and technology to deliver better patient engagement and outcomes and working with the product team to enhance our behavioral health platform.

Dr. Benders-Hadi Bio/Background

Dr. Benders-Hadi brings over a decade of invaluable patient care and provider experience to her new role and joins Talkspace during a period of expanded growth and innovation A board-certified psychiatrist with a background in overseeing behavioral health operations, Dr. Benders-Hadi most recently served as Vice President and Medical Director of Behavioral Health at Included Health (formerly Doctor on Demand and Grand Rounds Health). Previously, she held the position of Chief of Psychiatry at Rockland Psychiatric Center in New York.

“Working with Talkspace carries with it both enormous purpose and value that I am proud to be a part of,” said Dr. Benders-Hadi. “Providers are critically important to Talkspace’s mission. Understanding providers’ perspectives, goals, and challenges is what will successfully drive patient outcomes. I am committed to championing our providers and fostering an environment where they can thrive, deliver exceptional care, and make a lasting impact on the lives of our patients.”

What You Should Know:

– Texas County Memorial Hospital, a hospital in rural Missouri has selected RapidAI to deploy its core stroke imaging and workflow products.

– As a Level III stroke center, TCMH’s closest Level I facility is over 90 miles away, posing a significant barrier to timely treatment for stroke patients in the community.

– With Rapid’s technology, TCMH will now be able to analyze high-res CT scans in real-time, detect suspected ICH and LVO more effectively and make faster, more informed treatment or transfer decisions.

Rural Citizens Access to Telehealth (RCAT) Project

To support the implementation of RapidAI, TCMH received a grant from the Rural Citizens Access to Telehealth (RCAT) project. RCAT is a partnership between the Missouri Telehealth Network and the Department of Social Services, MO HealthNet Division, with the goals of reducing barriers to care, such as time and distance, and providing patients with access to technologically advanced, consistent and timely care in the state of Missouri.

“We are incredibly excited to have RapidAI in our hospital and expect it will enhance care delivery significantly and improve outcomes for our stroke patients – expediting our door-to-decision time by saving valuable minutes in assessing and triaging stroke patients,” said Jason Mayberry, the Stroke Coordinator at Texas County Memorial Hospital. “RapidAI will revolutionize how we provide stroke care at TCMH and ensure members of our community have access to the best possible care, regardless of where they live.”

With RapidAI, stroke and trauma teams at TCMH and other rural or spoke hospitals can streamline decision-making and expedite patient care. Additionally, hospitals of all sizes with resources and imaging capabilities are provided with more information, context, and support to make challenging clinical decisions earlier, reducing time to treatment, easing the burden of care, and supporting greater equity of care for all patients, no matter where they live.