Medical Design & Outsourcing asked her some questions about MyndYou’s technology, the benefits of AI, and the place for data accuracy in digital healthcare products.
MDO: What is MyndYou’s technology?
RPB: MyndYou has created an AI-based solution that empowers caregivers to deliver targeted, data-driven and individualized cognitive and behavioral treatment to older adults; prolonging their independence and improving their quality of life as they age.
Our solution consists of a web platform used by care practitioners to conduct remote care calls and an app that is downloaded by the user that passively collects activity-related data as the user goes about his/her normal daily routine. The platform detects anomalies from one call to the next as well as subtle changes in cognition that are recorded during regularly scheduled calls with the clinician. Using signal processing, machine learning, and AI, the MyndYou platform integrates this behavioral and cognitive daily-living data with existing care protocols to provide objective, comprehensive and personalized care recommendations to care providers.
Professional practitioners, health care workers at all levels and family members receive actionable, professional care guidelines that have been individually tailored to the user. The benefits of MyndYou’s approach accrue across the board to all caregiving partners, whether professional or otherwise, to optimize care and maintain awareness of changes as they occur.
MDO: What does it measure and why?
RPB: The MyndYou platform and app collects routine data from all aspects of the daily lives of older adult clients (such as driving, walking, and voice). The data is analyzed using a proprietary platform and subtle changes in cognition and behavioral health are isolated. Metrics such as cognitive stimulation, voice analytics, and activity analytics to study a client’s intonation in conversations over time can help clinicians detect subtle clues that could indicate cognitive decline. Caregivers receive alerts following detection of these changes as well as insights and a list of professional care recommendations to optimally address the situation from a personalized standpoint.
MDO: What are the fundamental benefits of artificial intelligence in healthcare? How does MyndYou tap into those advantages?
RPB: One of the greatest difficulties facing both practitioners and researchers in addressing cognitive decline is the lack of objective, organic data from their client’s daily lives. Today’s cognitive assessment methods rely heavily on subjectively-reported evaluations, which are created in a periodic “snapshot” manner. As a result, health workers and caregivers are challenged to connect generalized care methods to individualized circumstances impairing outcomes and care efficiency.
MyndYou’s AI-based technology provides clinicians and healthcare practitioners with objective data based on their clients’ specific status and individual needs while also syncing the data with the most effective care protocols to optimize care delivery.
MyndYou recently announced a groundbreaking partnership with Genesis Rehab Services, supported by a $900,000 grant from The BIRD Foundation. This long-term collaborative effort will enable Genesis therapists to provide care to thousands of seniors utilizing the tools provided by MyndYou. Working together, MyndYou and Genesis are raising the bar for in-hospital care and for clients transitioning home after discharge while, at the same time, reducing costs of sub-optimal treatment.
MDO: What approach did you take with your company in regards to collecting data and providing usable insights?
RPB: One of our most fundamental and guiding principles is our firm commitment to be as unobtrusive as possible when collecting data. We want our clients to maintain a sense of autonomy, dignity and self-reliance. We have found time and time again that the purest, most actionable data is derived from a client who is simply focused on carrying out the normal routine of his/her day rather than striving to provide data. Occupational therapists, neuropsychologists, and other specialists have been involved in MyndYou as innovative partners since the beginning. The clinical guidance of these employees and partners have been crucial in developing a product that fits the evidence-based needs of the practice and insights that are derived from MyndYou’s unique analytics while also speaking the practitioners ‘language’
MDO: How important is data accuracy, depending on the healthcare setting? E.g., does accuracy matter less at home than at the hospital bedside? Why or why not?
RPB: In addressing and treating cognitive and behavioral change, accuracy is less critical than identifying trends and anomalies over time. In parallel, the ability to identify and raise alerts regarding subtle changes in cognition is also critical. These markers signal when a change of care protocol may be warranted and what to look for in future assessments. This is true both in the home setting and in the hospital environment.