Separating brain-healthy wheat from chaff is becoming more urgent by the day

A) New video game com­pa­ny aims to devel­op ther­a­peu­tic games (The Verge):

Video game-based tools can help with con­di­tions like depres­sion and ADHD, research shows. Deep­Well Dig­i­tal Ther­a­peu­tics plans to build on those stud­ies. “There was an amaz­ing amount of sci­ence that had already been done,” Dou­glas says. “We start­ed to rec­og­nize exact­ly how ther­a­peu­tic these games already were.”

Often, a game used as a ther­a­py would be designed as a ther­a­py first, with fun or engag­ing game­play ele­ments lay­ered on top, he says. But Deep­Well wants devel­op­ers to build games in the most engag­ing way pos­si­ble — and then go in and check to see how they might help treat health con­di­tions. “Devel­op­ers have fig­ured out how to bring an engage­ment lev­el and get folks to do things with an inten­si­ty that on the med­ical side we’ve had a hard time with,” Dou­glas says. “The fun is real­ly the most ther­a­peu­tic thing.”

B) Woe­bot Health scores $9.5M and more dig­i­tal health fund­ings (Mobi­Health News):

Woe­bot Health, mak­er of an AI-pow­ered men­tal health chat­bot, announced Tues­day it has raised $9.5 mil­lion from Leaps by Bay­er … Last year, Woe­bot received FDA Break­through Device Des­ig­na­tion for its dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic treat­ing post­par­tum depression.

“Woe­bot Health’s mis­sion and prod­ucts are well aligned with our leaps num­ber 5 and 10 – to pro­tect the brain and the mind, and to trans­form health with data,” Dr. Jür­gen Eck­hardt, head of Leaps by Bay­er, said in a statement.

“With its deep focus on clin­i­cal evi­dence and unique AI-based plat­form and prod­ucts, Woe­bot Health is forg­ing a new fron­tier in behav­ioral health at a crit­i­cal time in our world. We’re excit­ed to sup­port endeav­ors that will make tech-sup­port­ed con­tin­u­ous care a real­i­ty for all.”

News in Context:

• FDA releas­es first Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence (AI) reg­u­la­to­ry plan to pro­mote respon­si­ble dig­i­tal health innovation
• A call to action: We need the right incen­tives to guide eth­i­cal inno­va­tion in neu­rotech and healthcare
• Can brain train­ing work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions