When life starts to get stressful, we often turn to things like a soothing cup of tea, deep breathing and meditation, or a dose of Xanax to help bring calm. One company we’ve covered in the past, Thync, based in Los Gatos, California, hopes to position itself as a smart, drug-free wearable device that can […]
Tag: Psychiatry
Mental Work, an Artistic Installation Involving Brain-Computer Interfaces (Video)
At the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, a nifty art installation will be on show in the coming days that will be a part experiment and partly a demonstration of brainwave reading technology. It will involve an electroencephalography headset being connected to a motorized wheel via a computer. People will be controlling […]
Electrically Stimulating a Specific Brain Region using Ultrafine Wires Enhances Memory
Neuroscientists at UCLA have found that electrically stimulating a specific area of the brain using ultrafine wires enhances memory in epilepsy patients. If the technique can enhance memory in other patients, it might help with conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. Our memory naturally declines with age, and in conditions such as Alzheimer’s, people can suffer […]
Ria Health Launches Mobile App to Help Reduce Drinking (Interview)
Last week we shared 12 new companies unveiling their innovative ideas at Health 2.0’s Launch! event this year. Back in the exhibit hall, a few more early stage businesses were also leveraging Health 2.0 to kickoff new programs and technologies. One of these was the official launch of Ria Health‘s mobile app solution to help people […]
Carrot Carbon Monoxide Breath Sensor System for Smoking Cessation Cleared for OTC by FDA
Carrot, a Redwood City, California firm, won FDA clearance for its Carbon Monoxide (CO) Breath Sensor System. It will be available as an over-the-counter product that’s designed to help smokers kick the habit as part of smoking cessation programs. The CO sensor features Bluetooth wireless connectivity, allowing it to interface with a smartphone app that […]
Health 2.0 Fall Conference: SleepTech Summit Exhibit Hall Companies
A unique track at this year’s Health 2.0 Fall Conference is a SleepTech Summit focusing on innovations that enhance or improve a person’s ability to achieve a quicker, longer, and more refreshing sleep. As part of the main exhibit hall, six sleep-related companies were demoing their devices and technologies, and Medgadget had a chance to […]
Virtual Reality Used to Study Origin of Fear and Anxiety
Our irrational fears are both very real and are also figments of our imagination. By manipulating what we think of as reality, researchers at Stanford University are working to understand the source of our anxieties and how to alleviate them. In order to do so, they built a virtual reality chamber where one’s fears can […]
Neuropace Epileptic Seizure Control System: Interview with Dr. Martha Morrell, CMO of NeuroPace
People with certain types of epilepsy may have the option to use a therapy that doesn’t include drugs. The RNS system from Neuropace, a company out of Mountain View, California, monitors the brain for signs of an oncoming seizure and stimulates it to disrupt the process. It has been approved in the U.S. for about […]
Retinal Imaging Device May Offer Insight Into Alzheimer’s
A noninvasive retinal imaging device that detects changes in the eye that are indicative of brain amyloid may provide new insight into Alzheimer’s disease. Medscape Medical News
Lyra Health and Welking Health Announce New Partnership to Improve Employee Access to Behavioral Health Services [Interview]
Earlier this year we shared news of a partnership between Welkin Health, a technology platform on which organizations can build their own digital therapeutic solutions, and Common Sensing, developers of the Gocap, a dose-capturing insulin pen cap, to evolve the paradigm of at-home diabetes management. Recently, Welkin Health announced a new partnership with Lyra Health to […]
Software Predicts Dementia from Amyloid PET Scans
Scientists at McGill University in Canada created a piece of software that can analyze images taken during an amyloid PET scan and provide an estimate of the chances of patients developing dementia. Alzheimer’s is associated with the buildup of amyloid plaques within the brain, but interpreting their location and concentrations into clinically useful information is […]
Scientists Use Light to Erase Unwanted Memories
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside have developed a technique to selectively erase fear memories by weakening connections between the nerve cells involved in forming such memories. Memories can be triggered by stimuli such as sights, sounds, and smells. Some memories are formed during traumatic events, and in this case stimuli associated with the […]
Stimulating the Brain with Magnetic Fields Can Control Movement
Scientists have developed a method to stimulate small clusters of brain cells using magnetic fields. Using this technique, they were able to control movement in mice. Understanding how the brain works is an ongoing effort, with a huge number of research teams working intensively to unlock its secrets. As part of this effort, an international […]
Deep Learning Algorithm Diagnoses Schizophrenia from fMRI Scans
A scientific collaboration between researchers at IBM and the University of Alberta in Canada has come up with a software tool that analyzes functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of patient brains and with 74% accuracy diagnoses schizophrenia. Moreover, the software’s algorithms were also able to reasonably estimate how bad the symptoms of the disease were […]
Evidence-Based Diagnostics for Mental Health Disorders: Interview with Jack Cosentino, CEO of Medibio
Medibio, an Australian medical technology company, has developed an evidence-based test for mental health disorders such as depression, chronic stress, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. Over 300 million people around the world have been estimated to suffer from depression, and depression is estimated to cost the US economy $210 billion a year. The company identified a […]
Computer Vision Applications in Mental Health: An Interview with Dr. LP Morency
The National of Mental Health estimates that more than 40 million adults in the US experienced some form of mental illness in 2015, 16 million (or almost 7% of the US population) of which experienced at least one major depressive episode. Over their lifetime, almost 30% of US adults will develop an anxiety disorder. This […]
Calming Virtual Reality Scenarios Prove More Effective at Reducing Pain
Virtual reality technology has been used in the past to help reduce the pain experienced during difficult to endure procedures, such as the SnowWorld game designed to help assist with bandage changes on burn victims. The actual mechanism how virtual reality actually numbs the pain was not properly studied, the assumption seems to have been that […]
Ebb Insomnia Therapy System Cools Front of Heat to Help Stop Racing Thoughts
A new sleep therapy system is coming to market that works by cooling the frontal lobe. The technology is rooted in some evidence that less activity in the front of the brain is linked to better sleep. It seems related to “racing thoughts” that people sometimes experience while trying to sleep, the slowing of which […]
Non-invasive Deep Brain Stimulation via Interfering High Frequency Signals
Researchers at MIT have developed a new technique to stimulate deep brain regions without the need for invasive implants. Currently, clinicians perform deep brain stimulation by placing electrodes into the brain to stimulate specific areas. As the therapy is so invasive, only patients with serious conditions like Parkinson’s disease undergo treatment. The MIT scientists have developed […]
Virtual Human Patients Effective for Practicing for Difficult to Present Diagnoses
For many doctors, being able to have a compassionate but frank discussion with a newly diagnosed patient is one of the most difficult parts of the job. Medical Cyberworlds, a Madison, Wisconsin firm, developed interactive software called MPathic-VR that lets medical students and clinicians practice difficult interactions. The software actually looks and listens to the […]