Telehealth for PTSD, SPAC sadness, & FDA clears VR

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A great success for rural telemedicine

An innovative attempt to direct mental health care providers in major cities to primary care clinics in rural communities to treat PTSD and bipolar disorder has shown overwhelmingly positive results and underscored the technology's potential to fill gaps in care. "It shows that you can make huge gains in providing evidence-based treatment to patients in underserved settings who previously had no access," said John Fortney, lead researcher and a University of Washington Professor, said Mario. But the project is also a clear example of the enormous financial and logistical hurdles that new telemedicine arrangements with distant psychologists and psychiatrists bring with them. Read Mario's story here.

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The AI ​​frontier needs a new sheriff

Since algorithms are becoming more and more common and complex in the healthcare sector, standards for evaluation and monitoring are becoming particularly important. That message came across loud and clear during Casey's conversation with AI experts yesterday STAT summit. Mayo ClinicJohn Halamka said algorithm developers should be required to disclose gender and racial diversity in their datasets, as well as details about their performance and suitability for different types of patients. Maia Hightower, Chief Medical Information Officer at the University of Utah, healthcare systems must carefully monitor algorithms even after they have been implemented, a step that is not yet formally or consistently taken.

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"Most health systems do not have an AI governance structure," she said. "We still have a long way to go to develop the necessary tools and infrastructures."

Prescription VR continues

the Food and Drug Administration has authorized the marketing of SimpleVRx, a prescription virtual reality treatment that uses cognitive behavioral therapy and other methods to treat people with low back pain. The de novo clearance was based on a randomized controlled study of 179 people who showed that the treatment relieved pain better than the control group, both immediately after treatment and with a one-month follow-up. The developer, AppliedVR, announced last week that it had raised $ 36 million in a Series B round.

The FDA has introduced many digital therapeutics recently. It was deleted last month LuminopiaVR headset-based treatment of childhood amblyopia, a condition that causes poor vision in one eye.

Apps to improve surgical results

The potential for using apps and wearable devices to improve patient outcomes after surgery has not escaped researchers, according to a new review of 44 articles describing digital interventions given to patients after a series of procedures. The evidence suggests that regular collection of patient-reported actions and activity data can provide better insight into recovery and that prompts from digital health tools could help reduce complications. However, whatever the options, the review revealed a number of issues including inconsistent and inadequate reporting and a lack of transparency regarding AI. They also found that most tools were designed without patient intervention, and people without certain mobile devices were often excluded from studies.

Problems in SPACland?

Bright, the emerging drug discovery company, and Khosla Ventures Acquisition Co. have increased their announced plans to merge into a $ 2.8 billion company. Valo had raised $ 450 million since it was founded in 2019. The deal was terminated due to "the current market conditions, particularly in the biotechnology sector".

In the meantime, Talkspace, the teletherapy app whose announcement of a $ 1.4 billion SPAC merger

Also: we hear Pear therapeutics'SPAC deal for $ 1.6 billion is nearing completion. The company announced this week that it has raised an additional $ 50 million investment as part of the deal.

Laps and laps

• Owkin, an artificial intelligence medical research company, received a $ 180 million investment from the pharmaceutical giant Sanofi.
• Home health care start-up MedArrival, last year from former. brought to life Above Bless youExecutive Dan Trigub, raised $ 25 million in a Series A round under the direction of Section 32.
• H1, a LinkedIn-like doctor-profile platform, raised $ 100 million in Series C under the direction of Altimeter capital.
• ribbon Bless you, an API data platform, raised $ 43 million Series B led by General catalyst. Andreessen Horowitz and others participated.
• Cala Bless you, which makes a wearable essential tremor treatment device, has $ 77 million in new funding led by Promotion company.
• Charco Neurotech, who is working on a handheld device to treat the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, raised a $ 10 million startup round led by Amadeus Capital Partners and Parkwalk Advisor.

What we read

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