Startup Aural Analytics raises $4.3M to monitor neurological health by analyzing speech patterns

Aur­al Ana­lyt­ics rais­es $4.3M for voice-based cog­ni­tive health mon­i­tor­ing (Mobi­Health­News): “Aur­al Ana­lyt­ics, a start­up using speech ana­lyt­ics algo­rithms to gauge changes in brain health, has raised $4.3 mil­lion in seed fund­ing … The arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence engine col­lects speech sam­ples through a smart­phone or tablet app, and uploads these to a cloud serv­er for analy­sis. From these, 

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Study finds psychiatric diagnoses to be ‘scientifically meaningless’

__________ Psy­chi­atric diag­no­sis ‘sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly mean­ing­less’ (Sci­ence Dai­ly): “A new study, pub­lished in Psy­chi­a­try Research, has con­clud­ed that psy­chi­atric diag­noses are sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly worth­less as tools to iden­ti­fy dis­crete men­tal health dis­or­ders. The study, led by researchers from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Liv­er­pool, involved a detailed analy­sis of five key chap­ters of the lat­est edi­tion of the wide­ly used…

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European tech initiative zooms in on digital biomarkers and mental health

EIT Health focus­ing on dig­i­tal bio­mark­ers and men­tal & brain health (Health Europa): “Announc­ing the sec­ond year of their inno­va­tion pro­gramme, Wild Card, EIT Health, a net­work of best-in-class inno­va­tors backed by the EU, are look­ing to chal­lenge tal­ent to deliv­er real solu­tions to the health­care mar­ket. This year, Wild Card will focus on two chal­lenges: mental…

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Update: Large study highlights the limited role of genetics in mental health and the importance of effective early interventions

___ Dear read­er, Time for Sharp­Brains month­ly e‑newsletter, dis­cussing the lat­est inno­va­tions for brain health and men­tal health, and open­ing in this occa­sion with a fas­ci­nat­ing study track­ing 2,232 twins over 10+ years. New research: Large study with twins high­lights the lim­it­ed role of genet­ics in men­tal health and the impor­tance of effec­tive ear­ly inter­ven­tions for ADHD How…

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Mixed reactions on the development of digital biomarkers and growth of Mindstrong Health

___ (More on the pos­i­tive side, at MIT Tech­nol­o­gy Review) The smart­phone app that can tell you’re depressed before you know it your­self: “There are about 45 mil­lion peo­ple in the US alone with a men­tal ill­ness, and those ill­ness­es and their cours­es of treat­ment can vary tremen­dous­ly. But there is some­thing most of those people…

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Mindstrong Health identifies digital biomarkers of cognitive function using smartphone data

___ mHealth Research on Men­tal Health Taps Into One’s Tap­ping Habits (mHealth Intel­li­gence): “Health­care providers look­ing to use mHealth in behav­ioral health treat­ment have long strug­gled to make the tech­nol­o­gy unob­tru­sive. But recent research sug­gests that remote mon­i­tor­ing of peo­ple with men­tal health issues could be done by ana­lyz­ing their smart­phone habits. A recent report…

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