4 min reading time

The Early-Bird Discount to the 10x Medical Device Conference ends Friday.
See http://medgroup.biz/10x-discounts
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There’s no denying you need help if your arm is broken.

But what if your spirit is broken? Or you often feel anxious? Or have post-traumatic stress disorder and/or suicidal thoughts?

You know the names of the multi-billion dollar drugs for mental health patients.
Next up: Devices for mental health patients.

A few presently in development include:
• Smart pill bottles that register opens and closes http://medgroup.biz/smart-bottles
• Hand-held devices using wavelengths of light http://medgroup.biz/phototherapy
• A brain implant to provide electrical stimulation http://medgroup.biz/brain-implant

Are you working on devices to serve mental health patients? Tell us in today’s comments.

What more can we as a community do to serve mental health patients?

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It was hard to choose among this week’s top discussions. Visit the main page at http://linkd.in/MDGroup for a recap of what you missed.

Going to MD&M this week? See who’s going and list yourself.
http://linkd.in/I-will-be-there

Where does a physician with a fresh concept begin? (33 comments)
http://linkd.in/fresh-concepts

Risks & costs for engineering, manufacturing and purchase of duplicate parts
http://linkd.in/the-cost-of-duplicating-parts

Are your R&D engineers more involved in remediation than innovation?
http://linkd.in/fix-or-build

And… very insightful comments on “Recalling Your Body Parts”
http://linkd.in/body-part-recall

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Congratulations to Team Nanobiosym Health RADAR for winning $25,000 at the Nokia Sensing XCHALLENGE with a device that enables diagnostic testing in the palm of your hand, using blood or saliva placed on a nanochip and inserted into a mobile device.

Learn more at http://www.medgroup.biz/Sensing-XChallenge and see which XPRIZE competition you could enter and win.

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Make it a great week.

Joe Hage
Medical Devices Group Leader

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Michel Bilodeau
IT Architect
We are working in a mobile solution that will record patient behavoir at home to be study later by a professionnal. Behavior are better explains to a doctor when it happen in natural condition like home. Could be use as a pre-diagnostic tool too.

Alison Keutgen
Sr. Product Marketing Specialist at Steelcase
How about helping mental health patients to better manage their condition in a less invasive way? And furthermore, better support the treatment and education they receive from professionals? We use a device that many patients already interact with, their smart device, and help them stay on a path to healthier behaviors while keeping them connected to their care team. Better serving mental health patients is a topic growing in importance, and it will definitely be interesting to see how the various industries (device, pharma, mHealth, etc.) continue to evolve to support it.

Joe Hage
🔥 Find me at MedicalDevicesGroup.net 🔥
Any more insights from the group on this topic?

Martin Conrad
bei HiTec Consult GmbH
-Smart pill bottles that register opens and closes
Are available globally for years with integrated tele-medicine services. The issue with the mentioned ICD chapter F pathologies and here especially affective and schizophrenic disorders is that the patient usually does not forget to take its pills – he decides against them due to adverse reactions. There the devices are useless. In combination with dementia or geriatric / multi-morbid patients they sell security.

-A brain implant to provide electrical stimulation
There are long term side effects like severe personality changes. Since the effect size compared to a combined psycho- & pharmacotherapy is not really existent the usage should only be restricted to patients where the all pharmacotherapy options failed. Neuro-prothetic devices like retina implants are interesting though.

Daniel McFalls
System Engineer at United States Department of Defense Graduate Student – The Johns Hopkins University
I’d love to hear more on this topic. I am a recent graduate, so I don’t have any experience in this field, but I’m very interested in learning how medical devices may be able to help with mental health.

Goldy Singh
VP Regulatory & Clinical Affairs at Profound Medical
There are multiple clinical trials related to devices treating various depression disorders. I am certain these stimulation devices (magnetic, electric, photo therapy etc.) will be in the market to help these patients. However, diagnosing these patients are real challenge. If you walk in an emergency at hospital with broken bone, you will be in and out, within hours. But if you walk in with severe mental illness, you won’t get the same attention. There is significant shortage of medical professionals in this field and the hospital protocols don’t do much for these patients. There is a dire need to help these patients. Hoping to see other’s input on “what can be done?”

Vijesh Unnikrishnan
Digital and Connected Health | Strategy | Consulting | ZS Associates
Have you come across Brainsway. They have an FDA approved technology for Deep TMS http://www.brainsway.com/usa/%7Cleo://plh/http%3A*3*3www.brainsway.com*3usa*3/Fhwq?_t=tracking_disc]). I think this is going to a space to closely watch. As we learn more about the human brain with things like the BRAIN initiative http://www.nih.gov/science/brain/%7Cleo://plh/http%3A*3*3www.nih.gov*3science*3brain*3/CsB0?_t=tracking_disc] there wil be a flood gate opening effect in terms of device opportunities.

Jon Gardner
Technology Consultant
Tameran Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon terrorists, said, “I don’t have a single American friend. I don’t understand them.”

My machines can help keep someone alive physically, but they do nothing for the soul. No device can take the place of interpersonal relationships, because a machine can neither give nor accept love. It seems to me the most useful device might be a gizmo that constantly reminds the user that they need to be part of a community–because, when it comes to mental, emotional, and spiritual health, we are designed to work best in community. As a pastor, I think it would be great to have a device that reminds the body of Christ that we need to invest in relationships, both within the church and in our larger communities. Doing a better job of loving one another would bring healing to the vast majority of mental health issues in our society, and eliminate their tragic consequences.