Pear Therapeutics

Ohio joins Indiana and Kentucky in funding Pear Therapeutics’ digital addiction treatments

by

Ohio is third state to fund Pear’s dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics to tack­le addic­tion (phar­mafo­rum):

The com­pa­ny has been push­ing for more reim­burse­ment of its three mar­ket­ed DTx prod­ucts in the US fol­low­ing a first FDA approval in 2017.

Pear said that the Ohio Depart­ment of Men­tal Health and Addic­tion Ser­vices (OhioMHAS) and Recov­ery­Ohio are pro­vid­ing access to Pear’s FDA-approved DTx reSET and reSET‑O, for treat­ment of sub­stance use dis­or­der and opi­oid use dis­or­ders, respec­tive­ly. [Read more…] about Ohio joins Indi­ana and Ken­tucky in fund­ing Pear Ther­a­peu­tics’ dig­i­tal addic­tion treatments

From digital therapeutics to personalized mental health solutions: Pear Therapeutics expands platform via partnerships with Empatica, etectRx, KeyWise, and Winterlight

by

Pear Ther­a­peu­tics Expands Plat­form with Dig­i­tal Bio­mark­ers, Machine Learn­ing Algo­rithms and Sen­sor-Based Tech­nolo­gies (press release):

Pear Ther­a­peu­tics, Inc. announced today that it has entered into agree­ments with mul­ti­ple tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies, includ­ing Empat­i­ca Inc., etec­tRx, Inc., and Key­Wise, Inc. The new tech­nolo­gies com­ple­ment the voice-based bio­mark­ers pre­vi­ous­ly licensed from Win­terlight Labs. These new agree­ments bol­ster Pear’s Pre­scrip­tion Dig­i­tal Ther­a­peu­tics (PDT) plat­form, by adding to its library of dig­i­tal bio­mark­ers, machine learn­ing algo­rithms, sen­sor-based tech­nolo­gies, and dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics. [Read more…] about From dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics to per­son­al­ized men­tal health solu­tions: Pear Ther­a­peu­tics expands plat­form via part­ner­ships with Empat­i­ca, etec­tRx, Key­Wise, and Winterlight

Update: Understanding Brain Health via Cosmological Health, and vice versa

by

LEFT: SECTION OF CEREBELLUM, WITH MAGNIFICATION FACTOR 40X, OBTAINED WITH ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (DR. E. ZUNARELLI, UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL OF MODENA); RIGHT: SECTION OF A COSMOLOGICAL SIMULATION, WITH AN EXTENSION OF 300 MILLION LIGHT-YEARS ON EACH SIDE (VAZZA ET AL. 2019 A&A). CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing fas­ci­nat­ing find­ings, books and resources for life­long brain health.

#1. “The human brain (sec­tion; left image above) func­tions thanks to its wide neu­ronal net­work that is deemed to con­tain approx­i­mate­ly 69 bil­lion neu­rons. On the oth­er hand, the observ­able uni­verse (sec­tion sim­u­la­tion; right image) can count upon a cos­mic web of at least 100 bil­lion galax­ies. With­in both sys­tems, only 30% of their mass­es are com­posed of galax­ies and neu­rons. With­in both sys­tems, galax­ies and neu­rons arrange them­selves in long fil­a­ments or nodes between the fil­a­ments. Final­ly, with­in both sys­tems, 70% of the dis­tri­b­u­tion of mass or ener­gy is com­posed of com­po­nents play­ing an appar­ent­ly pas­sive role: water in the brain and dark ener­gy in the observ­able Uni­verse.” Under­stand­ing Brain Health via Cos­mo­log­i­cal Health, and vice versa

#2. One very smart and gen­er­ous brain to bright­en your day: Indi­an teacher Ran­jitsinh Disale wins annu­al $1M Glob­al Teacher Prize; shares half with 9 finalists

#3. “Of all the qual­i­ties par­ents can cul­ti­vate in their chil­dren, hope and opti­mism are the most pre­cious. We can nur­ture hope and opti­mism in our kids by demon­strat­ing that we always have some con­trol over our envi­ron­ment and our­selves. The future isn’t a tide that’s going to crush us, it’s a wave we’re a part of.” — Made­line Levine, author of Ready or Not. Three favorite 2020 books on par­ent­ing and men­tal health

#4. A superb mem­oir on becom­ing a psy­chother­a­py pio­neer and best­selling writer: Becom­ing Myself, by Irvin D. Yalom

#5. This sur­vey of 2500 fam­i­lies about what ADHD treat­ments seem to work/ not work finds that 49% of par­ents report Exer­cise to be ‘Extreme­ly or Very Effec­tive;’ above any oth­er treatment.

#6. On the dan­gers of “pro­duc­tiz­ing” lifestyle guide­lines that help build brain reserve and delay cog­ni­tive prob­lems; Buy­er beware: The sto­ry of a pricey and “cre­den­tialled” pro­gram to end Alzheimer’s Disease

#7. Now, giv­en that “In a new McK­in­sey report, 62% of employ­ees con­sid­er men­tal health issues a top chal­lenge,” it is good to see grow­ing resources and approach­es aimed at address­ing the chal­lenge: Calm rais­es $75 mil­lion, expands into cor­po­rate men­tal health and wellness

#8. And, step by step, dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics are going main­stream: Click Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $30 mil­lion in debt to advance com­mer­cial­iza­tion of smok­ing ces­sa­tion app Clickotine

#9. Nev­er two with­out three: Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $80M; finds cost sav­ings of $2,150 per patient with opi­oid use disorder

#10. Final­ly, we asked our team and trust­ed advi­sors to com­pile a list of ideas to stay sane and healthy in the months ahead, pri­or­i­tiz­ing habits shown to pro­mote brain health, resilience and pos­i­tive neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty: Enjoy these 3 New Year Res­o­lu­tions and 36 Ideas for a Hap­pi­er & Health­i­er 2021

Wish­ing you a safe, healthy and hap­py New Year

Pear Therapeutics raises $80M; finds cost savings of $2,150 per patient with opioid use disorder

by

Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $80M in push for reim­burse­ment (Med­C­i­ty News):

Pear Ther­a­peu­tics raised $80 mil­lion in fund­ing, which it plans to use as part of a push for cov­er­age of its dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics. The Boston-based com­pa­ny has three FDA-cleared prod­ucts, includ­ing dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics for sub­stance use dis­or­der, opi­oid use dis­or­der, and most recent­ly, insom­nia. [Read more…] about Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $80M; finds cost sav­ings of $2,150 per patient with opi­oid use disorder

The FDA clears Somryst, Pear’s digital therapeutic to treat chronic insomnia

by

Pear gets FDA clear­ance for insom­nia ther­a­peu­tic (Med­C­i­ty News):

“Pear Ther­a­peu­tics received mar­ket­ing autho­riza­tion for its third prod­uct — a dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic intend­ed to treat chron­ic insom­nia. Called Som­ryst, the app is avail­able by pre­scrip­tion only. It con­sists of a nine-week pro­gram that includes cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py and restrict­ing sleep to a lim­it­ed win­dow of time [Read more…] about The FDA clears Som­ryst, Pear’s dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic to treat chron­ic insomnia

On Awe, Healthy Eating, Mental Health, Ethical Neurotech, and more

by

_____

Time to wrap-up anoth­er very active month with our Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter sum­ma­riz­ing excit­ing devel­op­ments in brain research, health­care and tech­nol­o­gy — plus a cou­ple fun brain teasers to spark curios­i­ty and innovation 🙂

New brain research:

New thinking about brain & mental health:

Emerging neurotech and digital brain health:

Finally, a couple fun brain teasers:

 

Have a excel­lent Halloween…

 

The Sharp­Brains Team