Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Growing research supports Heart Rate Variability (HRV) biofeedback training to lower stress and anxiety, increase sports performance

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What’s HRV? An impor­tant health met­ric every golfer should pay atten­tion to (Golf.com):

As ama­teur golfers, we’d love to play like the pros. There’s no doubt that you would trade your banana slice for Dustin Johnson’s pen­e­trat­ing 300-yard dri­ve down the mid­dle of the fair­way or Collin Morikawa’s impec­ca­ble ball strik­ing in a heartbeat.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, we have lim­it­ing fac­tors — be they phys­i­cal abil­i­ty, mon­ey, time or some­thing else. But that doesn’t mean we can’t adopt a few things the Tour pros do to stay in shape in our own lives. [Read more…] about Grow­ing research sup­ports Heart Rate Vari­abil­i­ty (HRV) biofeed­back train­ing to low­er stress and anx­i­ety, increase sports performance

To prevent “cognitive entrenchment,” think like a scientist and be wrong often

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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 Oth­er­wise, your exper­tise can fail, your opin­ions get out of date, and your ideas fall flat,” says orga­ni­za­tion­al psy­chol­o­gist Adam Grant, author of the new book Think Again: The Pow­er of Know­ing What You Don’t Know.

In his book, Grant explains why it’s so impor­tant for peo­ple to be hum­bler about their knowl­edge and stay open to learn­ing and chang­ing their minds. The book is filled with fas­ci­nat­ing research and guid­ance on becom­ing more flex­i­ble in our think­ing, while help­ing oth­ers to be more open-mind­ed, too. This skill is cru­cial not only for fac­ing crises like the pan­dem­ic, but also for nav­i­gat­ing com­plex social issues, mak­ing good busi­ness deci­sions, and more. [Read more…] about To pre­vent “cog­ni­tive entrench­ment,” think like a sci­en­tist and be wrong often

AppliedVR raises $29M to help make virtual reality the standard of care for treating chronic pain

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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. [Read more…] about Applied­VR rais­es $29M to help make vir­tu­al real­i­ty the stan­dard of care for treat­ing chron­ic pain

Tip for digital health start-ups: To navigate regulatory gray areas, “engage early and engage often” with the FDA

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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. [Read more…] about Tip for dig­i­tal health start-ups: To nav­i­gate reg­u­la­to­ry gray areas, “engage ear­ly and engage often” with the FDA

Innovation in COVID times: Otsuka and Click Therapeutics announce fully virtual clinical trial, leveraging Verily’s Project Baseline

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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. [Read more…] about Inno­va­tion in COVID times: Otsu­ka and Click Ther­a­peu­tics announce ful­ly vir­tu­al clin­i­cal tri­al, lever­ag­ing Verily’s Project Baseline

Happify Health raises $73M to deepen partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and insurance payers

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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. [Read more…] about Hap­pi­fy Health rais­es $73M to deep­en part­ner­ships with phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies and insur­ance payers