New CHEO Research Institute study to test effectiveness of Mobio Interactive mobile mindfulness therapy for youth
The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and Mobio Interactive are running a study in Canada to test the effectiveness of Mobio Interactive’s digital theragnostic, AmDTx, as mindfulness therapy on youth.
June 1, 2023
(Toronto, ON) – A new CHEO Research Institute study, in collaboration with Mobio
Interactive, is underway to examine the effectiveness of delivering clinically
validated mindfulness therapy for youth through a mobile app. The study, funded
in part by the Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization (OBIO®) through its
Early Adopter Health Network (EAHNTM), will also explore whether youth better engage with mental health
services using Mobio’s AmDTx app, and whether healthcare providers will continue to prescribe the tool as
an adjunctive therapy during treatment.
“With mental health and wellness-related issues
reaching an all-time high, especially in young Canadians, it is time to find
new creative and interactive ways to serve them,” said Dr. Bechara Saab, Mobio
Interactive’s CEO & Chief Scientist. “Our mission is to help create a world
where anyone, anywhere who is living with mental health issues, has the
opportunity to access clinically meaningful support.”
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the wait times
for Canadians seeking mental health support were at an all-time high. The
problem has continued to escalate, with a 52% increase in people seeking mental
health services during the pandemic, according to The Canadian Mental Health
Association.
“CHEO,
like many other pediatric hospitals, is experiencing unprecedented demands for
mental health services and we must find innovative solutions. This study will
provide robust evidence on whether early intervention with a mindfulness
training program delivered using mobile technology reduces emotional distress
and promotes resilience for youth waiting for outpatient mental health services
at CHEO. If the study shows this
new mobile approach to initial treatment works, it could be a game changer by
identifying an innovative, affordable, and scalable therapeutic tool,” said Dr.
Gary Goldfield, Senior Scientist and clinical psychologist at the CHEO Research
Institute, who is leading the study alongside Dr. Michael Cheng,
co-investigator, and psychiatrist at CHEO.
AmDTx delivers and measures clinically validated
psychotherapy. The mobile therapy includes wellness sessions ranging from
mindfulness training to music therapy, as well as indication-specific
step-by-step programs. Additional features of AmDTx include objective measurements
of mental wellbeing using the camera on the mobile device, along with
artificial intelligence, to guide the user into a suite of meditations and
psycho-education based on effective stress reduction from previous use, as
determined by the company’s proprietary digital biomarker extraction and
analysis.
By providing funding for this study, OBIO’s EAHN™
program continues to advance health technology innovation and commercialization
and help healthcare organizations access innovations that can impact the patient’s
journey.
“This project will test both AmDTx’s ability to
support youth as they experience increasingly longer wait times for outpatient
mental health services, as well as the app’s impact on outcomes during
treatment,” said Dr. Maura Campbell, President and CEO, OBIO®. “We are excited
to support this important study that focuses on improving the pressing problem
of longer than acceptable wait times for outpatient mental health services in
Canada.”
Mobio Interactive is a digital health company that is meeting the exploding demand for efficacious mental healthcare with artificial intelligence-powered digital theragnostics. To learn more, visit mobiointeractive.com.
About OBIO®
The Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization (OBIO®), a not-for-profit, membership-based organization dedicated to advancing health technology innovation and commercialization, is prioritizing the evaluation of new technologies through their Early Adopter Health Network (EAHN™) to provide solutions. OBIO® is engaged in strategy, programming, policy development and advocacy to further the commercialization of human health technologies, positioning Canada as a leader in the international marketplace. To learn more, visit: obio.ca
About the CHEO Research Institute
The CHEO Research Institute coordinates the research activities of CHEO and is affiliated with the University of Ottawa. The seven programs of research at CHEO RI focus on a full spectrum of pediatric topics. Key themes include cancer, diabetes, obesity, mental health, emergency medicine, musculoskeletal health, electronic health information and privacy, and genetics of rare disease. At the CHEO Research Institute, discoveries inspire the best life for every child and youth. For more information, visit cheoresearch.ca.
For more information about OBIO’s Early Adopter Health Network (EAHN™), or if you are interested in joining the Network, please contact:
Bibaswan Ghoshal
Director, Market Acceleration
bibaswanghoshal@obio.ca
For more information about Mobio Interactive, please contact:
Michelle Tjia
Chief of Staff
michelle@mobiointeractive.com
For more information about the CHEO Research Institute study, please contact:
Jennifer Ruff
Manager of Communications
jruff@cheo.on.ca
This press release has also been published on VRITIMES