Harnessing mHealth with addiction at Amy’s Place

Harnessing mHealth with addiction at Amy’s Place

Sep 19, 2018

This is the reposting of an original article written by Centra Group. You can read the original article here.

Monsenso is proud to announce a new working partnership with UK’s telecare provider, Centra. The joint work will explore new, digital approaches to mental health service provision at Amy’s Place’ – Centra’s and Amy Winehouse Foundation’s (AWF) flagship addiction recovery service in East London.

The Monsenso mHealth app offers a comprehensive solution for managing a range of affective disorders, including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder. By utilising everyday smartphone technology, Monsenso supports individuals to self-manage their conditions whilst providing valuable insights to their mental health or social care support worker.

The Monsenso solution combines self-reported data and environmental sensor data to provide a balanced view of an individual’s behaviour and mood over time. The data can be accessed by nominated support staff to help inform diagnosis and treatment pathways.

Over the past ten months Centra’s Research and Innovation (R&I) team has worked closely with Monsenso as well as staff and residents at Amy’s Place to evaluate and configure the solution.

A pilot program will be established for six months, with testing conducted by a group of young women currently living at Amy’s Place and their support workers. Throughout the pilot, the service will be evaluated and supported by Centra’s R&I team to ensure that it meets expectations and maximises its benefits..

About Centra
Centra is one of UK’s largest providers of telecare services delivering a range of life-saving alarm and monitoring services to social care workers, housing associations, health professionals, local authorities and individuals. Supporting over 100,000 customers across the country, our aim is to help people live safely and independently for longer. Our in-house Telecare team provide 24/7 call monitoring and support our clients with wellbeing checks, automated “I’m OK” calls and scheduled medication reminders. We also offer GPS-enabled devices for round-the-clock support away from home. As industry leaders, we provide cutting-edge technology solutions and tailored support that help meet customers’ ever-changing needs. To learn more, visit www.centragroup.org.uk

About Monsenso
Monsenso is an innovative technology company offering a digital health solution used for decentralised trials, remote patient monitoring and treatment support. Our mission is to contribute to improved health for more people at lower costs by supporting treatment digitally and leveraging patient-reported outcomes data. Our solution helps optimise the treatment and gives a detailed overview of an individual’s health through the collection of outcome, adherence, and behavioural data. It connects individuals, carers, and health care providers to enable personalised treatment, remote care, and early intervention. We collaborate with health and social care, pharmaceuticals, and leading researcher worldwide in our endeavours to deliver solutions that fit into the life of patients and health care professionals. To learn more visit www.monsenso.com.

About the Amy Winehouse Foundation
The Amy Winehouse Foundation works to prevent the effects of drug and alcohol misuse on young people. We also aim to support, inform and inspire vulnerable and disadvantaged young people to help them reach their full potential. We are driven by a powerful vision for young people, a world where young people can flourish. To learn more, visit www.amywinehousefoundation.org

Monsenso updates quality management system with new 2016 revision of ISO 13485 & annual audit of ISO 27001

Monsenso updates quality management system with new 2016 revision of ISO 13485 & annual audit of ISO 27001

Sep 18, 2018

ISO 13485 is an internationally agreed standard by ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) that sets out the requirements for a Quality Management System (QMS) specific to the medical devices industry. Monsenso mHealth solution first achieved DS/EN ISO 13485:2012 in July 11, 2016.

Developing our QMS is a continuous process. Recently, Monsenso has upgraded its QMS to the latest version of the standard EN ISO 13485 to the new revision: DS/EN ISO 13485:2016. Monsenso was audited by Bureau Veritas Certification Denmark A/S in June 2018 and found to be following the established procedures and the requirements of the standard DS/EN ISO 13485:2016.

So, what has Monsenso implemented in QMS to reflect the new standard and how does this affect users?

Quality management system with expanded risk management approach

According to the new version of the ISO standard, a risk based approach needs to be implemented in all the processes connected with the manufacturing of the medical device. This approach also include Monsenso’s suppliers.

In order to accommodate for this risk-based approach, Monsenso has implemented an extra layer of data security to our existing processes. This ensures that the evaluation / monitoring of our suppliers is proportionate to the risk associated with the purchased product. Monsenso’s critical suppliers are now placed on a risk level from I-IV, this ranking reflects the importance of the provided product relative to the medical device.

This implementation has helped to strengthen the control process of the suppliers, and helps to reduce risks that could potentially affect our customers and users of the product.

Closer to compliance with the requirements of the US market

Additionally, the new update of EN ISO 13845:2016 is in more alignment with US legislation and standards (FDA 21 CFR Part 820). Therefore, Monsenso is closer to meeting regulatory requirements of the FDA. FDA was a contributor to the new version and a lot of its regulation requirements are covered by this revision.

By upgrading their quality and security standards to become compliant with EN ISO 13845:2016, Monsenso has obtained an improved position to be aligned with worldwide requirements, including future compliance with FDA requirements on the US market.

Annual audit of ISO 27001 Information Security Management System

At the same time, Monsenso went through annual audition of ISO 27001. Compliance with this certification validates that Monsenso’s comprehensive information security practices protect its users and their information in accordance with internationally recognised standards.

The ISO 27001 standard ensures the secure management of customers’ information, intellectual property, and third party information by establishing methodologies and meeting key objectives for implementing information security.


Monsenso’s mobile health solution will be used in H2020 Funded ECoWeB Project

Monsenso’s mobile health solution will be used in H2020 Funded ECoWeB Project

Apr 23, 2018

Monsenso’s mHealth solution will feature additions for the ECoWeB project, which focuses on training and enhancing emotional competency skills for youth populations    

Copenhagen, Denmark – 24 April 2018 Monsenso is happy to announce the involvement of our mHealth solution in the Horizon 2020 Funded ECoWeB Project.

The ECoWeB project aims to provide a comprehensive and personalized mobile app that will train young individuals in enhancing their emotional control skills and minimizing their emotional deficits. Monsenso’s mHealth solution is the foundation for the project. The app will work closely with the 3 major components of Emotional Control: Production, Regulation & Knowledge. It is hypothesized that interventions based on such comprehensive assessments will efficiently increase resilience toward adversity, promote mental wellbeing and act as a primary prevention for mental disorders.

“The Monsenso mHealth solution offers a perfect foundation for the ECoWeB project. I am confident that the routine monitoring, and high customizability of the solution can be modified to help young individuals enhance important emotional competency skills.” says Ed Watkins, Professor of Experimental and Applied Clinical Psychology at the College of Life & Environmental Sciences for Exeter University.

This project adopts a new approach to the fundamental understanding of emotion, by combining a highly personalized approach to understanding the individual and leading digital technology. This innovative approach has the potential to deliver a breakthrough in the effective prevention of mental disorders.

The ECoWeB project will integrate the following three multidisciplinary approaches:

  1. The use of the theoretical model of normal emotional functioning (The Emotional Competence Process) to guide the identification and targeting of emotional competence mechanisms implicated in both the mental wellbeing and psychopathology for young people.
  2. The systematic assessment of personal Emotional Competence profiles to select targeted interventions to promote wellbeing
  3. Mobile application delivery intended for scalability, accessibility and adaptability in younger populations.

“This project is exciting because it diversifies the usage of our solution. In addition to providing a supplement for treatment in clinical practice, our solution will now be able to also be used independently to provide personalized prevention.” says Thomas Lethenborg, CEO at Monsenso.

The project is led by The University of Exeter. The consortium consists of the following members:

The project was developed in response to the need for more robust evidence on resilience factors and effective interventions for young populations, in addition to the need for scalable approaches to mental health interventions that are accessible at a population level.

The project is presently ongoing.

Click here to read the press release in Danish. 

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No.754657. 

Monsenso provides medication adherence and behavioural monitoring components in H2020 Funded R-LiNK Study

Monsenso provides medication adherence and behavioural monitoring components in H2020 Funded R-LiNK Study

Mar 23, 2018

Monsenso’s mHealth solution participates in the R-LiNK Study, a major new study for optimising treatment response to lithium

Copenhagen, Denmark – 16 April 2018  Monsenso is proud to announce our participation in R-LiNK – the major new study for developing a more complete understanding of the reactions and effects of taking lithium. As a part of this study, our solution will be implemented for 300 participants across 15 centres all over Europe.

Lithium is the leading treatment for patients with bipolar disorder. There is a large variability across patient responses when taking lithium. This variability makes it difficult for clinicians to predict how patients will respond to being prescribed lithium.

“Lithium is the oldest drug treatment used regularly in psychiatry and one that has shown evidence of many benefits over the decades it has been used. However, only about one third of patients are “excellent” responders with a future two thirds showing partial or no response. This large EU funded study takes place across Europe and aims to find out which “biomarkers” can be used to predict which patients will respond and for those whom lithium will not help,” said Professor Allan Young, Director of the Centre for Affective Disorders at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London.

R-Link is a multimodal approach to studying lithium initiation, and identifying important biomarkers from receiving lithium treatment. The comprehensive study aims to identify factors related to better responses, safety, and tolerability of lithium treatment. The results of the study can help provide patients and clinicians alike with more accurate information to make informed decisions regarding the prescription of lithium, therefore improving the long term management and prognosis for bipolar patients.

“Mobile health technology can provide new insight into the treatment of mental health and disorders, and mobile phone usage can also provide important new biomarkers for affective disorders.” said Professor Lars Kessing, of the Psychiatric Center Copenhagen and the University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Health Sciences.

The Monsenso mHealth solution will be involved in the phase of the study that will conduct a qualitative and quantitative study on the acceptability and efficacy of connected ecological devices to monitor mood, lithium levels, symptoms, daily behaviour, and enhance patient adherence. Therefore, the solution will include data collection of lithium adherence and outcome/behaviour reporting (via sensor data and daily self-assessment).

“Ensuring adherence to medical treatment on an individual level is key to a successful mental health treatment. Our mHealth solution will contribute to this study by promoting medical adherence, through providing easy, personalised self-monitoring and medication tracking, as well as medication reminders.” said Thomas Lethenborg, CEO of Monsenso.

This study also has the potential to enable the personalisation of lithium based treatment. Findings from this study can also contribute to the overall prevention and reduction of unnecessary side effects from lithium treatment as well as overall ineffective treatments.
Monsenso is now involved in more than ten pan European and domestic research projects in the mental health & affective disorders field.

The study is presently ongoing.

Click here to read the press release in Danish. 

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No.754907. 

Monsenso leads mental health component of H2020 funded WellCo Virtual Coach for Behavioural Changes

Monsenso leads mental health component of H2020 funded WellCo Virtual Coach for Behavioural Changes

Feb 6, 2018

Monsenso’s mHealth solution will lead the mental health component of a new ICT solution designed to help users maintain or improve their physical, cognitive, mental, and social well-being. 

Copenhagen, Denmark – 6 February 2018 Monsenso is proud to be a consortium partner in the international team consisting of SME companies, universities, and research centres for the Horizon 2020 funded WellCo project.

Led by Spanish ICT company Hi-Iberia, the WellCo project will deliver a radically new ICT solution focused on encouraging users to adopt and maintain healthier behavioural choices to help improve their long-term physical, cognitive, mental, and social well-being. The study will mostly be working with older participants.

“WellCo’s aim is to change behaviours and promote a healthy living that will be translated in better quality of life for seniors. One of the main factors is to ensure the acceptance and maintenance of the healthy behaviors promoted by WellCo. The WellCo application will try to make use of the technology as a tool to personalize and tailor these recommendations to the specific needs and preferences of each user.” says Inmaculada Luengo of Hi-Iberia.

The solution will consist of many components, including a comprehensive assessment, personalised advice, and supervised guidance & follow-up for users. WellCo interventions will be guided by an affective aware virtual coach that, through using state of the art technologies in AI (artificial intelligence), will interactively guide and empower users towards important behavioural changes.

Monsenso’s mHealth solution will help contribute experience and knowledge to the project, by providing comprehensive routine monitoring and detailed data collection for assessing the participant’s behaviour.

“We play a leading role in the development of the user assessment and in the design of the virtual coach, and we will also be involved in the prototyping and dissemination components,” says Thomas Lethenborg, CEO of Monsenso. “We are excited to see how we can build on our remote monitoring and sensor data functionality, in order to contribute to collecting longitudinal data to help improve the mental health of participants.”

The virtual coach will be tested in trial in Trento in Italy, Castilla y León in Spain, Copenhagen and the Southern Denmark area in Denmark. There will be a minimum of 150 end-users included in the study. The study will be continuously supported by a multidisciplinary team of experts and users’ close caregivers to ensure the effectiveness and accuracy of the guided wellness interventions.

Other Danish Involvement in the Project 

In Denmark, the University of Copenhagen and The University of Southern Denmark will be working alongside Monsenso in the study.

The University of Copenhagen will contribute to the study with the Quality of Life Lab, which explores the development and evaluation of personal behavioural health metrics by examining how sensor data can be used as a minimally obtrusive method to accurately and longitudinally measure an individual’s behaviour. The lab will also examine how an individual’s quality of life naturally unfolds over time; within this context, the lab will also examine which behavioural change methods can be used to improve the individual’s overall quality of life.

“It is very exciting to be involved in this study and to see how sensor data and remote monitoring can work together to offer a better, more informed, detailed picture of individual’s behaviours for the assessment and improvement of their quality of life and overall well-being.” says Katarzyna Wac, Quality of Life Lab leader and Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen.

The solution will be implemented, demonstrated, and piloted at The University of Southern Denmark.

“We will be very interested to see how this project effects our elderly patients and their wellbeing, and how much more data and information can be extracted with the use of remote monitoring and sensor data tools,” says Torben Uhrenholt of The University of Southern Denmark.

The Monsenso solution is currently being used in Region South Denmark Clinics.

Consortium Members 

The consortium consists of:

  • 3 SME companies: H-Iberia, a Spanish ICT solution supplying company, Connected Care from The Netherlands and Monsenso
  • Two universities: The University of Copenhagen and The University of Southern Denmark
  • One research center: Jozef Stefan Institute (Slovenia) and two end-user organisations Fondazione Bruno Kessler (Italy) and Gerencia Servicios Sociales Castilla y León (Spain)

The project has launched on December 4th in Madrid and will continue until the end of 2020.

Click here to read the press release in Danish.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement No.769765.

About Monsenso: Monsenso is an innovative technology company based in Denmark that offers a comprehensive mHealth solution to optimise the treatment of mental disorders. Our mission is to assist healthcare providers, researchers and individuals in coping with and overcoming the burden of mental illness. Our solution provides a detailed overview of the patient’s mental health through the automatic collection of behavioural data and routine self-monitoring. Our team is committed to developing complete and effective solutions that fit seamlessly within the lives of individuals, in order to increase the quality and efficacy of their treatment.

For additional information, please contact:
Thomas Lethenborg
CEO
Monsenso
+45 30 25 15 26
http://info@monsenso.com

Torben Uhrenholt
IT Project Leader
tuhrenholt@health.sdu.dk

Katarzyna Wac
Quality of Life Lab Leader and Associate Professor at the University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen
wac@di.ku.dk

Monsenso partners with Australian Mental & Social Health Counselling Service Provider On the Line

Monsenso partners with Australian Mental & Social Health Counselling Service Provider On the Line

Dec 19, 2017

Monsenso will partner with On the Line to assist counsellors in helping clients self-manage their anxiety, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia.

Copenhagen, Denmark – 19 December 2017 Monsenso, a Danish company developing mobile health solutions for mental health has partnered with On the Line, an Australian social health business. On the Line offers telephone, web chat and video counselling and social media moderation services 24/7 to more than 80, 000 people each year.

Monsenso’s mHealth solution will act as a proactive self-management app to strengthen the support and connection between counsellors and clients with a wide range of affective  and psychotic disorders. Specifically, the solution will offer a detailed routine monitoring system to help On the Line counsellors access detailed information regarding clients. This information will help counsellors  to support clients to better manage their health.

Clients will be able to input mood level, hours slept, medication taken, exercise, stress and more and this data will be fed into the dashboard to give On the Line counsellors a historic overview and analysis for each client.

“Our mHealth solution is the ideal complement to remote  and outpatient care.” said Thomas Lethenborg, CEO of Monsenso, “The live-time data collection and synchronization between clinician and client can help to enhance the quality of psychotherapeutic counselling.”  

On the Line has more than 55 years of experience in delivering mental health services to the community. It is the national provider of some of Australia’s most vital and trusted services, including MensLine Australia, Suicide Call Back Service and SuicideLine Victoria. On the Line helps encourage people to feel better by building resilience, fostering healthy relationships, and connecting people with community support.

“The Monsenso solution will help counsellors to have a clearer picture of how their clients feel on a daily basis. For our clients, it will help them to manage their condition, identify triggers and warning signs and empower them to better manage their social health and wellbeing.” said Kim O’Neill, CEO at On The Line.

Click on this link to read this press release in Danish.

For additional information contact:

Helen Chen
Marketing
Monsenso
+45 30 25 15 26
chen@monsenso.com