Business For Good: Giving PTSD the Attention it Deserves
Business For Good: Giving PTSD the Attention it Deserves
Since The Denizen last checked in, local startup NeuroFlow has grown and pivoted‚ but its mission stays the same: Providing help to vets traumatized past war
December. 27, 2018
When NeuroFlow CEO and founder Chris Molaro started his mental health technology company in 2016, he was hoping to put a paring in a problem that he witnessed all likewise frequently: Mail service traumatic stress among military veterans.
A West Point (and later Wharton) grad, Molaro served in the Regular army for six years—including a tour of duty in Republic of iraq—before leaving with the rank of captain. Though he himself never suffered any long term PTSD, he knows many immature soldiers who came domicile suffering from the effects of war—something that afflicts some 20 percent of Iraq War vets, according to the Veterans Administration. And he was disturbed by what he considered a lack of urgency from the VA and civilian medical establishment to assist those men and women—a gene in the 20 veteran suicides across the state per twenty-four hour period.
Now, Molaro has a adventure to alter all that. NeuroFlow'southward app, a wellness integration platform that allows patients and wellness intendance providers to keep in contact between appointments, is being used past 125 clinics and hospitals effectually the globe—including, through a $225,000 National Science Foundation grant, the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Heart in Philadelphia . The NSF grant is paying for a pilot program at the VA, which could lead to a $750,000 grant to expand to VA centers across the country.
This all signals a huge expansion—and a pivot—for the Philly startup since The Citizen last chronicled them a little over eighteen months ago. ("I get chills every time I look at the growth graphs," Molaro notes.) At that fourth dimension, Molaro had just launched three pilot programs that focused on biometrics—using a headset to collect brain data through measurables like cranial blood menstruation, electroencephalogram (EEG) readings, and brainwaves. The thought was that this data could help providers integrate behavioral and physical health.
"We know for a fact that mental wellness affects physical health, and vice versa," he says. For example, it'due south estimated that one-3rd of people with chronic illness will as well deal with depression. The reverse is also true— those with low are at a higher risk for many physical illnesses .
Developing robust methods for information collection on mental wellness is still fundamental to NeuroFlow. Simply at present, the company is focused on using the results of those offset pilots to launch an app that allows users to deport their own readings at home through their smartphones, rather than through wearables. The app as well allows providers to appoint remotely with their patients.
The time between appointments is oft unproductive, or fifty-fifty can set patients back. Molaro likens information technology to physical therapy: "There's the expectation that you're going to do a lot of work and exercises betwixt appointments, and if you don't do that piece of work, you're not going to go meliorate."
This works to solve a longstanding conundrum of the mental health field. For patients who seek treatment, the fourth dimension between appointments is often unproductive, or even can fix them back. Molaro likens it to physical therapy: "In that location's the expectation that y'all're going to do a lot of work and exercises between appointments, and if you don't practice that piece of work, you lot're not going to get better."
NeuroFlow's services allow providers and patients alike to arroyo these bug in a more than systematic way. Among other things, the app allows patients to self-report the exercises that they do, such as journaling or a meditation. It also measures physiological data, such as center rate. All of this goes directly to the provider, who tin can track their patients' progress.
If the patient hasn't logged in in a while or if the data is worse than usual, the app might advise emergency resources like a text crisis hotline. This takes the pressure off of the patient of having to check in and take the necessary steps to address a worsening crisis, something that can be exhausting in that context. In a fashion, NeuroFlow allows patients to know that they don't have to do all the work solitary.
Molaro has now expanded his vision beyond just veterans. "What nosotros confirmed over the past xviii months is that mental wellness is not just a veteran outcome," he says. "They are a minority in the millions of Americans who endure from depression, feet, and even PTSD."
Molaro has also learned a lot more than about the marketplace—specifically, that access to care and adequate engagement are huge barriers in mental health. About 44 million American adults endure from mental health issues in a given year, according to the National Alliance on Mental Disease . This leads to loss of income, social condition and even lives—suicide is the second leading crusade of death among Americans aged x to 34.
Fewer than half of people with mental affliction seek care—fifty-fifty Molaro says, those who have been referred to a therapist by a primary care provider. There are a multifariousness of reasons for this—stigma, associated price, interminable waitlists. As a socially-minded entrepreneur, Molaro sees his mission as helping to bridge that gap, making it easier, faster and less onerous for people needing help.
The idea has defenseless on among funders, as well. Since its launch in 2016, the company has raised almost $3.25 million, including more than $ane 1000000 from investors led by NJ JumpStart this September. The funds have gone towards expanding the squad (they began at four, and are now 17), and to developing their two products: EngageBH for mental health specialists and their patients, and IntegrateHealth for medical practices like the VA.
"Mental health is in an exciting time right now," says Molaro. "For the beginning time, it'south getting the attention that it deserves."
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/business-for-good-giving-ptsd-the-attention-it-deserves/
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