Draper Unveils Innovative Technological Approach to Transform Mental Health Care
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Draper has announced a significant advancement in healthcare technology that could help transform the diagnosis and treatment of mental health conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.
Led by Andrea Webb, Ph.D., Draper’s latest innovation combines advanced sensors, advanced analytics and machine learning to provide a more accurate and comprehensive view of a patient’s mental health.
Draper’s approach is designed to enable earlier and better detection of mental health issues, more personalized treatment plans and improved monitoring of patient progress, ultimately enhancing outcomes and quality of life. Such technology approaches come with important considerations around ethics, equity and equality, which Dr. Webb and her team are actively exploring.
This new approach aims to address challenges with traditional methods, like self-reporting, which can often be unreliable. Instead, Draper’s technology continuously collects real-time data from various physiometric indicators, including heart rate, skin responses and eye movements, offering healthcare providers a dynamic and detailed understanding of an individual’s condition.
This technology approach marks a significant step forward in mental health care, with the potential to make impactful changes in how these conditions are managed.
“Post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder (MDD) are two recognized mental health conditions that can affect warfighters and civilians in significant ways,” Webb said. “Our goal is to augment and improve the diagnosis and treatment of these types of conditions.”
Dr. Webb presented her work at the 2024 Home Base Brain Health Summit, September 11-12, 2024, at the MGH Institute of Health Professions in Boston.
Dr. Webb is Chief Scientist of Human Centered Solutions at Draper. She has studied physiometric responses in individuals with PTSD and MDD to identify specific indicators that could be used to better diagnose individuals, as well as to better monitor therapeutic responses. For example, her work has quantified differences in cardiac and electrodermal responses to various types of emotionally evocative stimuli among those with PTSD and MDD versus those without.
Released October 7, 2024
