artificial intelligence

AI-enabled chatbot Wysa receives FDA Breakthrough Device designation for patients with chronic pain, depression and anxiety

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AI Behav­ior Health Chat­bot App Fast-Tracked by FDA (Psy­chol­o­gy Today):

Recent­ly the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion (FDA) grant­ed break­through device des­ig­na­tion to Wysa’s AI-based dig­i­tal men­tal health con­ver­sa­tion­al agent that deliv­ers cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py (CBT) via a smart­phone to adults suf­fer­ing from depres­sion, anx­i­ety, and chron­ic mus­cu­loskele­tal pain [Read more…] about AI-enabled chat­bot Wysa receives FDA Break­through Device des­ig­na­tion for patients with chron­ic pain, depres­sion and anxiety

Geisinger and Eisai to test real-world validity of AI-powered Passive Digital Marker (PDM) in detecting early cognitive impairment and dementia

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Research col­lab­o­ra­tion will test nov­el algorithm’s effec­tive­ness on Geisinger data (press release):

Geisinger and Eisai Inc. today announced a col­lab­o­ra­tive effort to study the poten­tial effec­tive­ness of an arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) tool in the detec­tion of cog­ni­tive impair­ment that could iden­ti­fy demen­tias, includ­ing Alzheimer’s dis­ease (AD). If effec­tive, the AI tool could poten­tial­ly be devel­oped to sup­port the ear­ly detec­tion and stag­ing of cog­ni­tive impair­ment and demen­tia, lead­ing to appro­pri­ate addi­tion­al test­ing for the clin­i­cal, bio­log­i­cal diag­no­sis and treat­ment of demen­tias such as AD. [Read more…] about Geisinger and Eisai to test real-world valid­i­ty of AI-pow­ered Pas­sive Dig­i­tal Mark­er (PDM) in detect­ing ear­ly cog­ni­tive impair­ment and dementia

Mapping ‘psychedelic trips’ in the brain to better direct their therapeutic effects

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Image cred­it: Shutterstock

For the past sev­er­al decades, psy­che­delics have been wide­ly stig­ma­tized as dan­ger­ous ille­gal drugs. But a recent surge of aca­d­e­m­ic research into their use to treat psy­chi­atric con­di­tions is spurring a recent shift in pub­lic opinion.

Psy­che­delics are psy­chotrop­ic drugs: sub­stances that affect your men­tal state. Oth­er types of psy­chotrop­ics include anti­de­pres­sants and anti-anx­i­ety med­ica­tions. Psy­che­delics and oth­er types of hal­lu­cino­gens, how­ev­er, are unique in their abil­i­ty to tem­porar­i­ly induce intense hal­lu­ci­na­tions, emo­tions and dis­rup­tions of self-aware­ness. [Read more…] about Map­ping ‘psy­che­del­ic trips’ in the brain to bet­ter direct their ther­a­peu­tic effects

Beacon Biosignals raises $27M to scale EEG, AI-based neurobiomarker discovery platform

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Neu­rotech start­up Bea­con Biosig­nals scores $27M to bring AI to EEG analy­sis (Med­C­i­ty News):

Elec­troen­cephalog­ra­phy is a decades-old tech­nique for cap­tur­ing brain activ­i­ty, data that are used to eval­u­ate brain dis­or­ders. Bea­con Biosig­nals is apply­ing arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence to these tests, and the neu­rotech­nol­o­gy start­up has found a ready mar­ket in phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­nies inter­est­ed in assess­ing how their exper­i­men­tal brain ther­a­pies are work­ing. Now Bea­con Biosig­nals has some­thing else: $27 mil­lion in financ­ing. [Read more…] about Bea­con Biosig­nals rais­es $27M to scale EEG, AI-based neu­ro­bio­mark­er dis­cov­ery platform

AI-powered Woebot raises $90M to scale up digital self-therapy platform

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‘Dig­i­tal ther­a­pist’ Woe­bot perks up with $90M for AI-pow­ered men­tal health plat­form (Fierce­Biotech):

In news sure to excite even the most melan­choly of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence-pow­ered chat­bots, men­tal health plat­form Woe­bot has closed its series B fund­ing round with a whop­ping $90 mil­lion. [Read more…] about AI-pow­ered Woe­bot rais­es $90M to scale up dig­i­tal self-ther­a­py platform

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