Hi friend,
Another busy week in mental health innovation.
Let’s get into it!
NB: If you are a Hemingway Community member, jump into our Slack to get my personal take on these headlines and join the conversation with other community members. It’s also the easiest way to hear about our upcoming events (in-person and online).
What happened in mental health last week?
Business News:
⏺️ In the US, CMS unveiled the ACCESS model, a 10-year outcomes-based payment programme for Medicare that includes a dedicated behavioural health track for depression and anxiety with recurring payments tied to achieving measurable improvements in PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores. (link)
⏺️ Heard announced that they have crossed $10M in ARR and expect to reach their first profitable month in July. (link)
⏺️ Kismet shared some details on their acquisition by Kooth. The vision for the deal is to help more providers deliver higher-quality, more engaging care. (link)
⏺️ Headspace announced new updates to Ebb (their AI companion), including a voice mode for natural conversation and clinically-informed support. (At the time of writing, I don’t have a link for this news.)
⏺️ Cerebral opened its Resilience Methodology training program to its first external partner, Williamsburg Therapy Group. (link)
⏺️ First Stop Health announced a new deal with Pareto Health. (link)
⏺️ ThinkAITA launched CompassAI, a gamified learning platform for counselling students preparing for the National Counsellor Examination. (link)
⏺️ The Australian Government selected St Vincent's Health Australia to deliver the nation’s new Early Intervention Service. St. Vincent’s will receive AUD $217M for the first three years as part of an AUD $680M commitment to digital mental health from the Australian Government. This actually happened a few weeks back, but I didn’t include it at the time. (link)
⏺️ OpenAI announced a new AI mental health research grants programme. Organisations can receive up to $100k. Applications close on December 19th. (link)
⏺️ The Jed Foundation (a non-profit focused on emotional health and suicide prevention for teens and young adults) received a $40M unrestricted gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, the largest in JED's history. (link)
Research News:
⏺️ A Stanford-Harvard study found widely used AI models caused severe clinical harm in up to 22% of real patient cases, with top models producing approximately 15 severe harms per 100 cases through commission (recommending harmful actions) and omission (missing critical actions). (link)
⏺️ Two Chairs published research in Frontiers in Health Services showing 24% improvement in clinical outcomes after their six-month measurement-based care implementation. (link)
⏺️ Headspace published research in JMIR showing its CBT programme led to a 34% reduction in anxiety, a 34% reduction in depression, and a 30% improvement in sleep versus a waitlist control. (link)
⏺️ Researchers published a BMJ Mental Health paper suggesting a conceptual framework for the application of lifestyle psychiatry in mental healthcare. (link)
Keep fighting the good fight!
Steve
Founder of Hemingway
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