Debate: Will digital therapeutics gain the required levels of awareness, adoption, reimbursement and fulfillment to become sustainable?

Can dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics become prof­itable? (MedTech­Dive): In 2020, the Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion cleared Akili Inter­ac­tive’s video game to improve atten­tion in kids with ADHD. It was the first time that a video game for treat­ment was cleared by the agency, and is one exam­ple of a dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic, a class of soft­­ware-based treat­ments with…

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A few slow-paced breaths are enough to significantly reduce physiological stress

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, shar­ing impor­tant brain & men­tal health news plus a cou­ple fun brain teasers to test your men­tal self-rota­­tion skills. #1. Study: Edu­ca­tion and lifestyle helped over a mil­lion old­er Amer­i­cans avoid seri­ous cog­ni­tive prob­lems in 2017 Let’s kick­start 2022 with some good news: “The preva­lence of seri­ous cognitive…

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Digital therapeutics pioneer Akili Interactive plans to go public in mid-2022 at a $1B valuation

Pal­i­hapi­tiya-Led SPAC to Merge With Akili in $1 Bil­lion Deal (Bloomberg): Akili Inter­ac­tive, a start­up that has devel­oped a video game to help treat atten­­tion-deficit dis­or­ders in kids, has agreed to go pub­lic through a merg­er with one of Chamath Palihapitiya’s blank-check com­pa­nies. The deal, which con­firms a Bloomberg News report, val­ues the com­bined entity…

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Large study finds positive yet mixed results from Akili’s digital therapeutic for kids with ADHD

__ Full pub­li­ca­tion of piv­otal tri­al data out­lines Akil­i’s case for FDA reg­u­la­tion (Mobi­Health­News): “A full tran­script of STARS-ADHD — the piv­otal tri­al of Akili Interactive’s video game-like pedi­atric atten­tion deficit treat­ment — has been pub­lished in The Lancet Dig­i­tal Health jour­nal, pro­vid­ing onlook­ers a clear view of data fuel­ing the dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic company’s pending…

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Will digital therapeutics complement or replace stimulant medications to address inattention and “silent” cognitive issues?

___ Akili Inter­ac­tive: Dig­i­tal pedi­atric ADHD ther­a­peu­tic per­forms well with or with­out accom­pa­ny­ing stim­u­lant ther­a­py (Mobi­Health News): “Dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic com­pa­ny Akili Inter­ac­tive has announced the first results of an open-label, mul­ti­site pedi­atric ADHD tri­al pro­vid­ing some patients with the company’s video game-like treat­ment along­side a stim­u­lant med­ica­tion. Accord­ing to the com­pa­ny, both those who received…

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Trend: Pharma industry warming up to digital therapeutics

Dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics have poten­tial but com­mer­cial suc­cess unproven (Van­tage): “Devel­op­ing drugs to treat dis­or­ders of the cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem is famous­ly fraught with dif­fi­cul­ty. Sev­er­al com­pa­nies, includ­ing Pear Ther­a­peu­tics and Dthera, are tak­ing a wild­ly dif­fer­ent approach: dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics. These are pieces of soft­ware designed to treat dis­ease that are reg­u­lat­ed, pre­scribed and even paid…

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