Mental-Health

A call to action: We need the right incentives to guide ethical innovation in neurotech and healthcare

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Ana Maiques, CEO and founder of neu­rotech com­pa­ny Neu­ro­electrics, writes up a com­pelling case in her recent arti­cle, sum­ma­rized thus:

“I strong­ly believe that Neu­rotech entre­pre­neurs can not afford not to be involved in neu­roethics. It is sim­ply not an option anymore.”

I share that belief and would like to take it one step further:

“I strong­ly believe that health­care prac­ti­tion­ers, researchers, exec­u­tives and reg­u­la­tors can not afford not to be involved in neu­roethics. It is sim­ply not an option anymore.”

[Read more…] about A call to action: We need the right incen­tives to guide eth­i­cal inno­va­tion in neu­rotech and healthcare

Global mental healthcare meets the digital revolution

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“…When com­mit­ting to the Unit­ed Nations’ Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals in 2015, world lead­ers empha­sized the impor­tance of pro­mot­ing men­tal health and well-being world­wide. Yet three years lat­er, the sit­u­a­tion remains grim. Every year, 800,000 lives are lost due to sui­cide. In the Unit­ed States alone, [Read more…] about Glob­al men­tal health­care meets the dig­i­tal revolution

Time to rethink Mental Health, especially anxiety disorders and depression

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The glob­al men­tal health cri­sis could cost the world $16 tril­lion by 2030. With men­tal dis­or­ders on the rise in every coun­try in the world, nowhere is immune.

Poor men­tal health stops employ­ees from reach­ing their full poten­tial and forces them to take more sick days, stunt­ing pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and eco­nom­ic growth. This is also a chal­lenge with soci­ety-wide ram­i­fi­ca­tions. Lone­li­ness and iso­la­tion affect many of the most vul­ner­a­ble among us. Peo­ple with seri­ous con­di­tions such as schiz­o­phre­nia or bipo­lar dis­or­der are espe­cial­ly like­ly to be mar­gin­alised by their com­mu­ni­ties. Those with the most severe con­di­tions pay with their lives, dying pre­ma­ture­ly – as much as two decades before their time.

For­tu­nate­ly, com­ing into Davos this year we are rid­ing a sea change in how the world approach­es men­tal health.

–> Keep read­ing Why this is the year we must take action on men­tal health over at the World Eco­nom­ic Forum blog.

Article in context:

European tech initiative zooms in on digital biomarkers and mental health

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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 and brain health and dig­i­tal bio­mark­ers in diag­nos­tics [Read more…] about Euro­pean tech ini­tia­tive zooms in on dig­i­tal bio­mark­ers and men­tal health

Large NIH study to collect and share data on the impact on kids’ brains of screen time and other social, behavioral, physical and environmental factors

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NIH Study Probes Impact of Heavy Screen Time on Young Brains (Bloomberg):

“Brain scans of ado­les­cents who are heavy users of smart­phones, tablets and video games look dif­fer­ent from those of less active screen users, pre­lim­i­nary results from an ongo­ing study fund­ed by the Nation­al Insti­tutes of Health show [Read more…] about Large NIH study to col­lect and share data on the impact on kids’ brains of screen time and oth­er social, behav­ioral, phys­i­cal and envi­ron­men­tal factors

On Mental Health and the advent of Digital Phenotyping

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Build­ing the Ther­mome­ter for Men­tal Health (The Dana Foundation):

“Imag­ine that you vis­it your physi­cian com­plain­ing of a fever and, rather than tak­ing out a ther­mome­ter, they begin hov­er­ing their “edu­cat­ed hands” over you. Grad­u­al­ly, they press down against your arm to gain a full impres­sion of your skin’s tem­per­a­ture and the “deep­er seat­ed com­bus­tions.” Remov­ing their hand, they look close­ly at your appear­ance and pro­nounce their assess­ment: you do, in fact, have a fever. You might (jus­ti­fi­ably) be dubi­ous [Read more…] about On Men­tal Health and the advent of Dig­i­tal Phenotyping