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Approximately 1/5th of adults in the U.S. (43.8 million people) experience mental illness of some form in any given year. A significant number of those are related to depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress. We also know that individuals living with mental illness face increased risk of having chronic medical conditions and die earlier than peers - largely due to treatable medical conditions. In fact, mood disorders like depression are the 3rd most common cause of hospitalization in the U.S. for both youth and adults, adding billions to the costs of care each year. Despite this, most of the U.S. health system separates physical health and mental health, and the ways in which we treat illnesses.
Yet, for decades we have known that mental health is not truly separate from our overall health. Mental health directly affects our physical health, and vice versa. The valuation of what mental health expenditures cost our health system each year is currently estimated at $204 Billion and growing. And while treatments such Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) have been shown to improve thoughts and behaviors that impact health decisions and outcomes, dealing with mental health and physical health jointly can be exceptionally difficult in our current system – and therefore, often goes ignored.
Veteran Expertise And Entrepreneurship
In an effort to create a collaboration between primary care physicians and behavioral health specialists to treat the “whole person,” the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has turned to a mental health technology company that will roll-out at the Corporal Michael J. Crascenz VA Medical Center in Philadelphia. In this pilot – which is being funded by an National Science Foundation (NSF) grant – could be a substantial step forward for those in the VA system suffering from mental illness.
The company chosen to receive the $225,000 Phase I Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant from the NSF is NeuroFlow, an organization that has already raised more than $1.5 million in each of the last two years, and happens to have been founded by an Army veteran and Bronze Star Recipient who served as a platoon leader during the Iraq War. According to NeuroFlow’s CEO Christopher Molaro, upon returning from war he saw first-hand the lack of mental health treatment options for returning servicemen and women. “This is a huge opportunity to demonstrate how technology and remote monitoring capabilities can enhance the way providers integrate and collaborate behavioral health care in an evidence-based fashion,” he says. “We have grown 10x this year so far, which has been amazing and we are honored to be considered a valuable tool to so many clinics and health systems. But personally, for me, since I served as a U.S. Army Captain, to work with the VA and to serve my fellow Veterans is not only something I take as a big responsibility, but it is a mission I am proud to be on.”
But NeuroFlow is not exactly a newcomer to the behavioral health space. The team contends they’re ready to face challenges that come with CBT such as costs of implementing new systems (monetary and personnel), the geographic and personal distance that can occur between patient visits, and having to deal with patient compliance issues. The company is already in 112 clinics and hospitals in 5 countries, and received accreditation at the Smart Health Innovation Lab with high engagement results.
The NSF Bet
As integrated care has consistently been proven effective in improving outcomes and lowering medical costs, the NSF, an independent federal agency with a budget of about $7 billion that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering, has been looking to fund scientific discovery into products and services with commercial and societal impact. Using the NSF’s America’s Seed Fund which is Congressionally mandated and awards $200 million annually to startups and small businesses, the VA can test NeuroFlow while de-risking trials of the technology.
Specifically, with NeuroFlow’s recently launched IntegrateHealth platform,the VA can test the incorporation of behavioral health into the traditional VA medical setting for things such as primary care – where most antidepressant prescriptions are written – and pain management. That could mean changes in how VA doctors prescribe medications such as antidepressants and opioids, as well as less paper for physicians, less visits for patients, and greater education for everyone about the interconnected issues underlying holistic veteran health.
Barry Johnson, Director of the NSF’s Division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships says, “We hope that this seed funding will spark solutions to some of the most important challenges of our time across all areas of science and technology.”If the trial goes well, following the completion of mutually agreed upon benchmarks, NeuroFlow will be eligible for a $750,000 Phase II grant to launch a larger-scale study of potential clinical and commercial impact across more veteran medical centers. This is particularly true if NeuroFlow can, as predicted, integrate seamlessly with the VA’s new Cerner EHR system.
