Aetna launches on-demand care service, Spring and Grow make AI announcements, + lots of fascinating research

Hi friend,

It was a busy week in our mental health corner of the world. But don’t worry, I’ve been keeping on top of it all so you don’t have to.

Let’s get into it.

⏺️ Vaya Health and Partners Health Management agreed to merge. The two MCOs will combine to form Vaya Partners, serving more than 222,000 members across 47 counties in North Carolina and covering mental health, substance use disorders, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and traumatic brain injuries. (link)

⏺️ Curio FZ acquired Nora Mental Health, an outpatient therapy franchisor operating brick-and-mortar clinics. Curio is a digital mental health company that raised $10M for it’s digital therapeutics platform in 2024. The acquisition moves it into in-person care for the first time and aims to bring Curio's digital tools to Nora's existing clinic network. Terms were not disclosed. (link)

⏺️ Psilera raised $8.8M in seed funding to advance a psilocybin-derived compound toward human trials. Psilera is a biopharmaceutical company providing new neuroplastogens and psychedelic therapies. They are currently developing PSIL-006, a compound designed to produce the therapeutic effects of psilocybin while reducing the hallucinogenic side effects and cardiovascular risks. The primary target is frontotemporal dementia, with alcohol use disorder as a secondary indication. The first-in-human trials are planned for 2027. (link)

⏺️ Aetna announced it will launch on-demand virtual mental health services in 2027. Aetna Mental Health On Demand will give members aged 13 and over access to licensed clinicians via chat, phone, or video. Clinicians are trained on a single-session intervention model designed to provide both crisis support and personalised care plans. The platform includes AI tools for administrative tasks aswell as “advanced predictive tools that identify members at risk of future inpatient admissions, as well as those with immediate, acute needs, in near real time.” . During an initial rollout, clinicians responded to members within 13 seconds on average. Self-insured employers can quote the service now for a January 1 2027 launch. The announcement comes the week after Aetna cut reimbursement rates for therapists on the Alma platform. (link)

⏺️ Grow Therapy published a whitepaper on responsible AI in mental health care. Grow's approach to AI in mental healthcare is a model it calls "provider-centred AI," and it’s built around three principles: improving client outcomes, maintaining strong oversight, and protecting the therapeutic relationship. In practice this includes Coach, a between-session conversational AI tool now used by nearly 80,000 clients, and Session Insights, an AI note-taking tool that has generated more than 1.5 million post-session summaries. Providers report time savings of up to 40% on intake notes and up to 66% on progress note documentation. (link)

⏺️ Spring Health published a blog post outlining its vision for AI-native mental health care on its 10th anniversary. President and co-founder Adam Chekroud argues that the first decade of digital mental health solved access but not continuity, with each job change or insurance switch resetting the patient's care history to zero. The post describes how Spring Health plans to use its Guide AI agent and its acquisition of Alma to build persistent care relationships that follow patients across coverage changes and providers. Chekroud defines Spring’s vision for care in the next decade as: “continuous, lifelong, and AI-native.” (link)

⏺️ Headway began requiring biometric identity verification for patients and providers. The platform now requires providers and patients receiving medication management to upload a government-issued photo ID and complete a facial scan through a third-party service. The policy has been met with some pushback from providers and patients online, including concerns about privacy and the safety of transgender clients. Headway states the process is equivalent to showing ID in person and that the data is handled through a HIPAA-compliant, SOC 2-certified platform. (link)

⏺️ Neurovalens received FDA de novo approval for Modius Spero, the first neuromodulation device authorised to treat PTSD symptoms. The Belfast-based company's wearable headset delivers non-invasive gentle nerve stimulation in 30-minute daily sessions. The approval follows a recent clinical trial in which two-thirds of trial participants reported clinically meaningful improvement. The device will be available to veterans through the VA from July 2026. (link)

⏺️ US States continue moving to regulate AI mental health chatbots following a series of high-profile harms. A Johns Hopkins analysis published last week reports that more than 5 million young people aged 12 to 21 have used AI chatbots for mental health advice. Deaths linked to AI chatbot interactions have prompted state legislators to move forward with regulation requiring crisis detection, disclosure of AI identity, and referrals to human care. Oregon's recently passed law was cited as a leading model. Regulating this large and diverse sector is a difficult challenge for policy makers and regulators. (link)

⏺️ Microsoft moved Copilot Health into preview, positioning it to unify personal health data across wearables and health records. Copilot Health allows users to create a health profile, link their health records, upload lab results, connect their wearables and use all this to get insights and guidance on their health. I’m fascinated by this product and would love to hear any feedback from people who’ve used it, especially for mental health purposes. Microsoft reports the product responds to over 50 million health queries a day across its consumer platforms. (link)

⏺️ APA study projects psychiatry demand will rise 43.7% by 2036, while supply falls 12.3%. Under those conditions, workforce adequacy would fall from 70% to 43% over the next decade. (link)

⏺️ 18% of college students use AI for mental health support, with highest use among those with the most severe symptoms. Researchers found that students with the worst depression and anxiety symptoms were turning to unregulated AI tools at elevated rates. The study raises questions about safety standards and appropriate guardrails for this population. (link)

⏺️ A deep learning model used wearable activity data to screen for mood disturbances (93%) and sleep disturbances (89%). Taiwanese researchers developed MUSCLE, a multi-task model trained on physical activity biomarkers from 69,559 participants and showed high degrees of precision in sub-clinical screening of mood and sleep disturbances. (link)

⏺️ Researchers found that large language models (LLMs) could detect multiple dimensions of psychopathology from one-minute, open-ended daily diary narratives. Researchers asked 108 adults to record one-minute daily diaries describing the most important event of their day. Large language models analyzed the transcripts and were able to identify several dimensions of psychopathology, with ratings that broadly matched self-reports and clinical assessments. The study (which has not yet been peer reviewed) suggest that brief, open-ended narratives may be enough for AI to screen and monitor mental health symptoms. (link)

⏺️ Ukraine released results from large-scale wartime VR therapy deployment showing widespread use and promising integration into mental health care. The study reports outcomes from a six-month deployment of VR-based mental health therapy from Ukrainian startup Aspichi. The service was delivered to over 1,100 patients in Ukraine during the war and shows the approach can be implemented at scale in real-world, high-stress conditions as well as being integrated into existing healthcare services. (link)

⏺️ Delix Therapeutics presented Phase 1b data showing no hallucinatory or dissociative side effects for its depression compound zalsupindole. The drug is designed to produce antidepressant effects without hallucination, dissociation, or altered perception. Early clinical results show the compound was well tolerated, with no evidence of psychotomimetic or dissociative effects in participants. (link)

⏺️ Hybrid care models found to produce the highest repeat visit rates among young people. A study of 41,034 people aged 12 to 24 found that hybrid care produced the highest repeat engagement. Younger adolescents preferred in-person care, while older youth skewed virtual. The findings suggest flexible service models help improve access, especially for youth who might otherwise not seek care. (link)

⏺️ An online behavioural training programme reduced caregiving burden in mothers of children with ADHD. A web-based, eight-session version of the Barkley programme significantly improved resilience and reduced caregiving burden, with benefits sustained at one-month follow-up. (link)

⏺️ Meta-analysis finds psychiatric diagnostic interviews are only moderately reliable and vary widely by disorder. A review of 57 studies found that standardised diagnostic interviews produced only moderately consistent results when used with the same patient on separate occasions. Reliability was higher for substance use disorders than for mental health conditions. The finding raises questions about the use of structured psychiatric assessment as a reliable benchmark for outcome measurement and payer validation. (link)

That’s all for this week.

Keep fighting the good fight!

Steve Duke

Founder of Hemingway