Ieso launches Eight Billion Minds programme to address unmet mental health needs

Published: 2-Oct-2019

New digital therapeutics programme to exploit major scientific discoveries from deep learning analysis of 200,000 hours of patient therapy


Ieso Digital Health has launched Eight Billion Minds, a new digital therapeutics programme aimed at addressing the global and regional shortages of mental health therapists.

The campaign is building the next generation of mental healthcare based on analysis of high-volume, real-world clinical data from Ieso’s IECBT platform, ThinkWell, with a vision to making mental health treatments accessible for all.

Emboldened by significant recent advances in science and engineering; we are launching Eight Billion Minds to catalyse development of a radical new generation of therapeutic solutions for mental health

Combining practical knowledge of delivering differentiated clinical outcomes with the application of deep learning to hundreds of thousands of hours of therapy, the company has decoded what works in real-world clinical settings and plans to use new technology to distribute highly-personalised therapies on a scale that is just not possible in 1:1 delivery.

Ieso’s real-world data set contains more than 200,000 anonymous therapy hours from its ThinkWell technology-enabled 1:1 care platform.

Using deep learning models and natural language processing (NLP); Eight Billion Minds quantifies and analyses intervention-outcome associations to gain understanding of therapy-related language and what aspects of psychotherapy are most effective.

This learning will be used to create clinically-engaging and effective digital therapeutics tools for mental health sufferers where there are simply not enough therapists globally to meet demand.

It will also work to improve engagement with and the efficacy of traditional therapy delivery.

Eight Billion Minds already understands which components of therapy are clinically most effective and has built tools to help enable therapists to diagnose and focus on the elements that have been proven to have the most impact on a patient’s chances of recovery.

Dr Andy Blackwell, group chief science and strategy officer at Ieso Digital Health, said: “Depression and anxiety impact millions of people from all walks of life, everywhere.

“Emboldened by significant recent advances in science and engineering; we are launching Eight Billion Minds to catalyse development of a radical new generation of therapeutic solutions for mental health.

We have demonstrated that taking a data-driven approach to mental healthcare results in better outcomes for patients. Empowered by clinical science and deep learning, we will now use this same data to discover and develop a radical new generation of therapeutic solutions for mental health conditions

“Using deep learning and our unique data asset, we have already made great advances in understanding what works in therapy, right down to individual words.

Eight Billion Minds is using the latest technology to encapsulate this in a form that is scalable for distribution globally and removes barriers that are associated with mental healthcare today.

“We are building the next generation of mental healthcare.”

Half of all countries have four or less psychiatrists to every 100,000 people, and in low-income countries the ratio is 0.1 to every 100,000.

Dr Blackwell said: “With the widespread adoption of consumer technology, and substantial advances in mental health science, we now have an unprecedented opportunity to take the fight to mental illness globally.

“We have demonstrated that taking a data-driven approach to mental healthcare results in better outcomes for patients.

“Empowered by clinical science and deep learning, we will now use this same data to discover and develop a radical new generation of therapeutic solutions for mental health conditions.”

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