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Launch HN: Osmind (YC S20) – software for better mental health therapies

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Re: Launch HN: Osmind (YC S20) – software for better mental health therapies

#31

Post by luciayhuang »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #25

> Our EHR enables doctors to measure how patients are doing in between appointments via an integrated patient mobile app to drive personalized, improved clinical decision-making. For example, we can use data science to automatically detect symptom exacerbation or improvement (from patient-reported outcomes or functional metrics such as activity levels) and get them in for treatments at the right time. The problem wit…

Thank you for bringing up this great point - yes, agreed that patient-reported outcomes can be sometimes challenging even though this is the standard of "objective" measurement for mental healthcare! Part of our whole goal is to find additional objective measurements that don't need to rely solely on the patient's reporting. For example, how one uses their phone (have they left the house? are they socializing and in touch with others? etc.) could be telling. By combining different streams of information we can relieve patients, clinicians, researchers of just relying on the types of surveys you talk about to give a more objective view of the patient. We don't know of anyone else taking this comprehensive approach.

Re: Launch HN: Osmind (YC S20) – software for better mental health therapies

#32

Post by nradov »

petra wrote: post #30
nradov wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which supplements have proven safe and effective for treating mental health conditions in large scale randomized controlled trials?

There's a problem here: it doesnt make financial sense to do those studies on a supplement, without strong parents. That doesn't mean they aren't helpful, and some psychiatrists already use them. And in particular, when were talking about vitamins, minerals that the body naturally gets , the risk profile is quite good.

That's a separate problem. Individual psychiatrists can experiment with unproven treatments, within reasonable bounds. But it wouldn't be appropriate for an EHR vendor like Osmind to make treatment recommendations without a solid foundation in evidence-based medicine.

Re: Launch HN: Osmind (YC S20) – software for better mental health therapies

#33

Post by luciayhuang »

rmrfstar wrote: post #26

> Any analysis we do is always on anonymized and aggregated information and never traceable back to an individual or clinic. Google says your records are "anonymized" when they drop the last octet of your IP address. What do you mean when you say "anonymized"?

Thank you for the question! We do more than just redact records by erasing names and all demographic information. We actually remove specific pieces of information from all records, such as medications, lab results, diagnoses, etc. and put those into separate files that contain similar information from numerous other records. Thus the only thing researchers see are spreadsheets with a bunch of numbers, medications, and dates that include information from, at minimum, thousands of anonymous contributors around the world who have joined forces to advance science and healing. As a result, the information is totally anonymous. We realize there can be concerns that data in general can never be totally anonymized, but a combination of our rigorous de-identification process, aggregation across (at minimum) thousands of people across the world, and strict laws forbidding any attempt by researchers to re-identify data make it extraordinarily difficult if not virtually impossible to trace data back to any individual or clinic.

Re: Launch HN: Osmind (YC S20) – software for better mental health therapies

#34

Post by luciayhuang »

david_shi wrote: post #29

Very necessary product. Have you thought about approaches for helping researchers run studies with de-identified but linked data?

Thank you! Yes, after rigorous deanonymization we aim to support academic studies that look to research standards of care, efficacies of treatment paradigms, and public health measures. These collaborations can help develop better procedures for treatment resistance

Re: Launch HN: Osmind (YC S20) – software for better mental health therapies

#35

Post by rush86999 »

david_shi wrote: post #28
rush86999 wrote: post #9

The real achievement here is how you were able to convince clinics to try your software. The biggest problem in healthcare is inertia. It is not that the tools don't exist but people in this field don't like change. I run a telemedicine startup Tangerine Health https://www.tangerinehealth.co/ and we want to approach self funded companies and their independent Third Party Administrators to provide a subscription base…

Have you reached out to benefits brokers? I've found that they're usually easier to get in touch with.

Not yet will try thanks for the advice!

Re: Launch HN: Osmind (YC S20) – software for better mental health therapies

#36

Post by rush86999 »

luciayhuang wrote: post #15
rush86999 wrote: post #9

The real achievement here is how you were able to convince clinics to try your software. The biggest problem in healthcare is inertia. It is not that the tools don't exist but people in this field don't like change. I run a telemedicine startup Tangerine Health https://www.tangerinehealth.co/ and we want to approach self funded companies and their independent Third Party Administrators to provide a subscription base…

Thank you for your note - so real! Your work looks really important. Interestingly with self-ensured employers you may want to try their HR/benefits departments rather than anything healthcare related. A lot of bigger companies will also use benefits brokers/consultants like Mercer, Willis Towers Watson, and more. Best of luck and let us know if we can be helpful to you too :)

thanks for the info!

Re: Launch HN: Osmind (YC S20) – software for better mental health therapies

#37

Post by salimmadjd »

Congrats on taking your first major steps on your journey.

As an outsider who doesn’t know either of you I get concerned by:

>Jimmy and I met at Stanford in a healthcare IT class at Stanford last year where I wrapped up my MBA and Jimmy is on leave from medical school

It sets a red flag this being a MBA project, especially given neither of you have worked as a professional mental healthcare worker.

I don’t know either of you, but just sharing my initial honest impression based on your post.

There is a lot of stuff above about the size of the market and your technology, but not enough about why you’re so driven to solve this problem.

Hope you find this honest feedback helpful. (Edit format)

Re: Launch HN: Osmind (YC S20) – software for better mental health therapies

#38

Post by luciayhuang »

salimmadjd wrote: post #37

Congrats on taking your first major steps on your journey. As an outsider who doesn’t know either of you I get concerned by: > Jimmy and I met at Stanford in a healthcare IT class at Stanford last year where I wrapped up my MBA and Jimmy is on leave from medical school It sets a red flag this being a MBA project, especially given neither of you have worked as a professional mental healthcare worker. I don’t know eith…

Thank you for your honest feedback :) This wasn’t actually just a school project. Jimmy and I met in the class and stayed in touch. One of the many things we bonded over was our shared mental health journey. From growing up in households where it’s highly stigmatized to dealing with our own struggles during college and beyond, we realized we both had a drive to do something based on our and our loved ones’ patient journeys. We are lucky to work with a number of advisors who are some of the most respected academics and practitioners in psychiatry such as Dr. Charles DeBattista and Dr. Alison McInnes. We know we have a lot to learn and are excited to continue to bring in these perspectives. I am super grateful you’ve pointed out what your perception is! I would be happy to address any additional concerns or take any other feedback :) thank you so much! lucia@osmind.org

Re: Launch HN: Osmind (YC S20) – software for better mental health therapies

#39

Post by esseti »

Out of curisoty, how have you implemented the security/hipaa compliance?

> We care deeply about patient and clinician privacy as well. Our platform is HIPAA-compliant and protected by end-to-end encryption. We work with independent third parties to verify our compliance and security. Patients own their health data and have the right to all of it. Any analysis we do is always on anonymized and aggregated information and never traceable back to an individual or clinic. We openly state that our mission to advance new treatments to the patients and doctors we work with and have found that the whole field is motivated to help - everyone realizes it’s an all-hands-on-deck movement.

do you have further infos?

Re: Launch HN: Osmind (YC S20) – software for better mental health therapies

#40

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

luciayhuang wrote: post #31
xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #25

> Our EHR enables doctors to measure how patients are doing in between appointments via an integrated patient mobile app to drive personalized, improved clinical decision-making. For example, we can use data science to automatically detect symptom exacerbation or improvement (from patient-reported outcomes or functional metrics such as activity levels) and get them in for treatments at the right time. The problem wit…

Thank you for bringing up this great point - yes, agreed that patient-reported outcomes can be sometimes challenging even though this is the standard of "objective" measurement for mental healthcare! Part of our whole goal is to find additional objective measurements that don't need to rely solely on the patient's reporting. For example, how one uses their phone (have they left the house? are they socializing and in…

This is concerning for people suffering from disabilities and on long term medical leaves, and also where a private disability insurance provider (or even social security!) is paying the patient.

Most disability corps only care about maximizing revenue, and will look for any excuse (legal or not) to cut off a client. Often times they require full access to medical records, so what sort of information is in this records can be, for lack of a better term, life or death.

If a whether or not a patient left the house might be tracked and eventually accessed by an insurance agent, I would be extremely hesitant to use this product, and I know private disability insurance advisors that would be very afraid of this sort of thing, on behalf of their clients.

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