Mar 26, 2017
The MDiary Study is a part of the ENTER project (previously called E-Mental), which is being done in collaboration with The Mental Health Services in the Region of Southern Denmark (MHS), the South Denmark University, Aalborg University, and Context Consulting.
Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
Borderline is a serious and debilitating mental disorder characterised by difficulties with regulating emotions, which leads to unstable and self-destructive behaviours and relationships.
The prevalence of BPD is 1%-5%. Borderline increases the risk for suicide by 4-fold, while patients with comorbid Borderline and a tendency to self-harm have a further 2-fold attenuated risk. BDP is difficult to treat, and even more difficult when co-occurring with other disorders.
Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is the best validated treatment for Borderline, showing medium to large effect sizes as compared to treatment as usual. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy uses self-monitoring as the mainstay of treatment, which helps patients regulate their emotions by means of emotional regulating skills, and reduce problem behaviour.
Self-monitoring has traditionally been done by means of daily paper diaries. The latest developments in smartphone applications have generated alternatives for ecological momentary assessments of problematic behaviour with the additional functionality of prompting patients to practice skills targeting emotion regulation.
Monsenso’s involvement in the the mDIARY Study for patients with Borderline Personality Disorder
Monsenso is responsible for improving and developing additional modules in the Monsenso mHealth solution. The objective of the study is to prove that the Monsenso DBT (Dialectical Behavioural Therapy) solution is a reliable and clinically valid way to collect patient data, helping individuals with Borderline learn these skills at home, speeding up their recovery.
1. Skills tracking
In the current configuration used for DBT treatment, skill used throughout the day can be selected in the daily self-assessment. This does not take into account if the patients have actually learned the skills, meaning a lot of skills will appear in the list that the patient might not already know. In order to personalise the skills list, and in order to help the clinicians and patients to track progress, the skills should be configurable in the sense that the patient is able to indicate whether they have not learned a skill, are in the process of learning a skill, or know it and can use it meaningfully. This implies, the the patients should be able to, on their phone in the configuration section of the self-assessment, to have a list of skills appear, where they can indicate whether a skill is ’Not known’, ’In the process of learning’, or ’I know it, and can use it meaningfully’.
2. Skills training / Psychoeducation
In DBT treatment, skills are an essential part, and patients often have a paper folder, with descriptions of each skill. In the current version, the “Action Plans”’ in the system have been used for this purpose, but it makes it not very easy to overview and need more ways of presenting content, like videos or sound files. The layout is like a dictionary, where patients can find information regarding their disorder, usual treatment regime, prevalence, but alto typical issues and preventive actions that could be taken.
3. Emotion rating (BEARS)
One parameter in the self-assessment should be named “Emotions” in which joy, anger, attachment, sadness, safety, anxiety, pride and shame can be be rated on a scale of 0-4:
0 – Not at all
1 – A Little
2 – Some
3 – A lot
4 – Extreme
It is important that they are all rated in the same screen, as the patient need to see these together.
4. Therapy progress / Detailed overview
The overview screen will be re-designed and focus around “Therapy progress,” highlighting the progress over time. The key factor for the use of the system should be the patients’ development and progress over an extended period. The scope of the solution is to include graphs of the clinical questionnaires in the overview screen, which includes summary scores of DERS, BSL, and HTQ questionnaires. Likewise the attendance percentage should be shown, together with the Hierarchy level rated by the clinician.
To learn more read:
Mar 26, 2017
SmartCare by Smartphones was developed in collaboration with the Unit for Psychiatric Research, a group of young patients and their caregivers from the Infirmary for adolescents with schizophrenia in North Jutland.
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. People with schizophrenia may seem like they have lost touch with reality. Although schizophrenia is not as common as other mental disorders, the symptoms can be very disabling and include hallucinations (hearing or seeing things that don’t exist), delusions (unusual beliefs not based on reality), muddled thoughts (based on hallucinations or delusions) and changes in behaviour.
Monsenso’s involvement in SmartCare by Smartphones
The SmartCare by Smartphones project developed a mobile health (mHealth) solution called “MindFrame,” which is powered by Monsenso, that supports the treatment of individuals with schizophrenia. It consists of a smartphone application for patients and a web portal for clinicians. MindFrame was developed as a framework that offers a unique impression of the correlation between the illness and daily life. Together, healthcare providers and patients can customise the application’s settings so that it corresponds to the person’s actual challenges and supports his particular needs.
MindFrame also provides individuals with customised action plans within the application ensuring that self-help tools are readily available, even when the person is feeling well. Participants are required to fill out a self-assessment on their smartphone; these assessments will reveal the state of the individual’s mental health. The data collected on the self-assessment will be subsequently displayed on the smartphone app as a graph over the course of 14 days.
The clinician can also access the patient’s self-assessments through the clinical web portal enabling him to identify any patterns and make possible connections between certain behaviours and the symptoms they may trigger. With the data from the self-assessments, the system can also identify triggers and early warning signs notifying both, the patient, and the clinician.
To learn more:
Mar 26, 2017
The RADMIS Research Project is supported by the Innovation Foundation in Denmark and is done in collaboration with the “MONARCA team” with the department of psychiatry represented (RHP) by professor Lars V. Kessing and DTU represented by professors Jakob E. Bardram and Ole Winther.
Depression and bipolar disorder
According to WHO, depression and bipolar disorder are leading causes of disability worldwide, and they cause a high burden in terms of cost, lost productivity, morbidity, suffering, and mortality. According to the European Commission, depression is one of the most pressing public health concerns today, accounting for more than 12% of all estimated ill health and premature mortality in Europe, only exceeded by heart disease and cancer.
Although during the last few decades, psychiatric treatment has shifted more from inpatient treatment to outpatient treatment, the costs of psychiatric hospitalisations are still significant.
In fact, patients with affective disorders are more frequently hospitalised than any other patient group, counting for approximately 20% of all psychiatric hospitalisations.
Monsenso’s involvement in the RADMIS RESEARCH PROJECT
Monsenso is responsible for improving and developing four modules in the Monsenso mHealth solution.
1. Data-collection framework. This task will research and develop a framework for data collection, clustering, preprocessing, and management based on both patient self-reporting and automatic sensor data collection. This will be done as part of the Monsenso platform with input from DTU research on data preprocessing and pathological insight from RHP.
2. Context-aware CBT module. This task will research and develop a module for context-aware (just-in-time) delivery of a rumination-focused CBT and (b) concreteness training, a facilitated self-help intervention intended to increase specificity of processing in patients with depression. This will be done as part of the Monsenso platform with design and technical input from DTU and psychological insight and input from RHP.
3. CBT content. This task will develop multimedia content for CBT training, such as action and coping plans for patients, cartoon and video instruction material, and medication guidance. This content will be developed by psychologist from RHP and incorporated into the CBT module.
4. Illness-forecasting module. This task will research and develop a module for disease forecasting based on research from DTU on correlations analysis and prediction. This module will be included into the Monsenso platform.
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Jan 31, 2017
Copenhagen, Denmark – 31 January 2017. Monsenso ApS, Region Zealand, and two German partners have been granted major funding by Eureka/Eurostars, for the “IMProving Availability and Cost-effectiveness of mental Healthcare for Schizophrenia through mHealth” (IMPACHS) project.
The objective of the IMPACHS project is to design and develop a mobile and context-aware Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) content integrated into Monsenso Clinic. Through IMPACHS, Monsenso will deliver smartphone-based intervention technology for outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia, to improve the availability and cost-effectiveness of mental health care.
Eurostars is the largest programme of knowledge-intensive SMEs with the objective of stimulating growth through international cooperation on the development of new products and services.
With regards to the grant, Thomas Lethenborg, CEO at Monsenso said “This grant will allow us to shift from being a remote patient monitoring digital tool to providing intelligent treatment to individuals with schizophrenia and other mental disorders over time. This will be the third project where we work on a similar solution since RADMIS and ENTER (previously called E-Mental) have similar goals, but for patients with bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder respectively.”
The programme is a jointly funded initiative between the EU and 36 Eurostars countries in Europe and around the world, including Canada, South Korea, South Africa, Turkey, and Israel. During the first round of qualifications, there were 370 submissions, from which 61 projects were from Denmark. When the final qualification round took place, 19 Danish projects were selected to receive significant funding.
The Danish Innovations Fund is the local representative of Eureka/Eurostars in Denmark, and its total budget to distribute amongst all Danish projects is 43 million DKK.
For additional information contact:
Jennifer Highland
Marketing and Communications Manager
Monsenso
+45 81 75 80 01
highland@monsenso.com
To read the original press release in Danish issues by the Danish Innovations Fund, click here.
Dec 13, 2016
Copenhagen, Denmark – 13 December 2016. Monsenso, an innovation leader in mobile health (mHealth) technology for mental health, announced today that Psykiatriresurs, a private practice clinic in Gothenburg, Sweden, will implement the Monsenso mHealth solution for depression treatment.
The private clinic, which offers psychological and neuropsychiatric services, provides mental health treatment to 600 individuals with depression, anxiety, personality disorders and ADHD. In addition to these patients, Psykiatriresurs will soon open a second clinic with a similar capacity, in Varberg, 80 km South of Gothenburg.
To start with, the mHealth solution for depression will be used by 250 patients, although Dr. Kristoffer Södersten, Director of the clinic, has plans to roll it out to all patients across both clinics.
“With this new technology, we want to raise the bar on the mental health treatment offered around the different private clinics in Sweden, and with the Monsenso mHealth solution we will be able to go a step further by reaching out to our patients when they need it the most. At Psykiatriresurs we are constantly looking to improve our patients’ experience, and our aim is to use the technology to improve and personalise even more of the treatments we currently provide to our patients,” said Dr. Södersten.
The mHealth solution for depression will be used by the clinicians to support the personalised treatment of individuals with this disorder. With the web portal, they will be able to identify the triggers and early-warning signs of all patients and schedule emergency consultations when needed.
Thomas Lethenborg, CEO at Monsenso, said “With the implementation of the Monsenso mHealth solution for depression, clinicians at Psykiatriresurs will have access to real-time patient monitoring and their patients’ historical data, which will help them make better decisions in regards to clinical treatment.”
Patients will use a smartphone app to collect sensor data and fill in routine self-assessments that reveal their current state of mind. The smartphone app also works as a self-management tool that allows patients to manage their symptoms.
Clinicians will use a web portal where they can access all the data collected by the patients’ smartphones, anytime, anywhere. The web portal enables clinicians to view relevant information related to each patient.
For additional information contact:
Jennifer Highland
Marketing and Communications Manager
Monsenso
+45 81 75 80 01
highland@monsenso.com
Kristoffer Södersten
Director
Psykiatriresurs
+46 03 13 13 51 90
kristoffer.sodersten@psykiatriresursigoteborg.se
You can download this article as a PDF in English, Danish and Swedish
Nov 15, 2016
Copenhagen, Denmark – 15 November 2016. Monsenso announced today that the Norwegian hospital, Lovisenberg Diakonale Sykehus, will begin a pilot study with the Monsenso mHealth solution that aims to reduce hospital readmissions of individuals with bipolar disorder. Lovisenberg was signed up as a customer by Computas, Monsenso’s partner in Norway.
The pilot study, which will include individuals with bipolar disorder, aims to reduce hospital readmissions by using the Monsenso mHealth solution to intervene at an early stage.
Thomas Lethenborg, CEO at Monsenso, said that Lovisenberg would conduct a ten-month pilot study to determine if the solution should be widely implemented with other mental illnesses.
“Lovisenberg is committed to finding innovative solutions that help them provide better care to their patients in a more cost-efficient way. With the implementation of the Monsenso mHealth solution, a patient’s historical, aggregated data will be available more easily,” Mr Lethenborg added.
Kim Petersen, Executive Director at Computas AS, said “We are thrilled to have signed up our first customer with Monsenso. This type of technology gives new opportunities for the integration of mobile health into the existing mental health services in Norway; and I am confident that once clinicians start experiencing the clinical and financial benefits of implementing the solution, we will sign up more customers in no time!”
Andreas Joner, Head of Clinic at Lovisenberg, said the trial would allow them to investigate how a remote patient monitoring solution can be used to improve patient care and patient engagement.
“The Monsenso mHealth solution will help us to access and analyse data in a more efficient way. Besides, since most people carry their smartphones all the time, patients can answer their self-assessments and clinical questionnaires wherever they are, without feeling self-conscious,” said Andreas Joner.
The Monsenso mHealth solution for mental illnesses is based on a triple-loop treatment model that connects patients, carers and clinicians and has the potential to reduce hospital readmissions of bipolar patients.
Patients use a smartphone to fill in routine self-assessments that reveal their current state of mind and collect sensor data. The smartphone app also works as a self-help tool that allows patients to manage their symptoms and the behaviours that trigger those symptoms. Carers are also given a smartphone that allows them to assess the overall well-being of the one they care for, and make notes that are shared with the patient and the clinician.
Clinicians use a web portal that provides historical information on each patient, including routine self-assessments and clinical questionnaires. The portal also allows them to obtain an overview of their patients’ illness progression, symptoms, medication compliance, and medical record keeping.
With more than 1300 employees, Lovisenberg Diakonale Sykehus delivers effective treatment and outpatient care across its multiple sites. The hospital provides specialist care in mental health.
For additional information contact:
Jennifer Highland
Marketing and Communications Manager
Monsenso
+45 81 71 7713
highland@monsenso.com
Tone Hærem
Communications Director
Lovisenberg Diakonale Sykehus
tone.harem@lds.no
Pål Vermund Knudsen
Sales Director
Computas AS
pal.vermund.knudsen@computas.com
About Lovisenberg Diakonale Sykehus
Lovisenberg Diaconal Hospital provides specialised health care services in mental health and internal medicine for 180,000 inhabitants of four City Districts in Oslo (inner city). In addition, mental health services are offered to several other city boroughs. The surgical department performs scheduled operations, and has one of the leading orthopaedic units in Norway. The hospital has 234 beds, more than 2,000 employees, and an extensive out-patient facility. It is a non-profit, privately owned organisation, all services provided are within Public Health. Our mission is to offer diagnostics, treatment, and follow up services of a high quality to all our patients, with equality and respect. Being innovative and finding new solutions is part of this.
About Computas
Computas is an international IT solutions provider based in Norway, delivering solutions all over the world. We deliver services and solutions for work processes and collaboration. Our core competence is systems development, architecture and integration, project management and consulting. We have unique experience, deliver high quality in all projects, and work closely with customers to make the best solutions. The health care system in Norway is changing, and there is a need for smart solutions that can ensure quality and improve the efficiency of health services. The key to solving these challenges is through better use of IT. We are prepared to contribute with our expertise and our solutions aimed at patients and health care workers. We have delivered everything from work process solutions to apps to help the health sector to work more efficiently and to help patients to have better safety.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]You can download this article as PDF in English, Danish and Norwegian
