Mental Health, Technology, & Foresight
Updated: Apr 3
Mental Health America reports that in 2018, one in five Americans facing mental health conditions experience unmet clinical needs. Forty-four million American adults have mental health conditions and the rate of youth with Major Depression Episode (MDE) and suicidal ideation continues to rise--yet 62 percent receive no treatment!
Untreated mental health conditions are detrimental to nearly all aspects of overall health. So why has psychiatric care been so inconsistent with the needs of patients? Despite the fact that demand for mental health care is at an all-time high, and patients continually face obstacles to obtaining care in the first place, the conventional and arguably outdated clinical operations may be the most muddling.
Innovation in psychiatry, unlike many fields in medicine that have adopted transformative technologies, has been notably behind the times. In a 2006 study, The National Institutes of Health found that about half of depressed patients did not respond to treatment after two attempts of medications with psychiatrists prescribing. For those who continue the trial and error regimen for a third round of psychiatric medicine, only a quarter will see positive improvements in their health. As the number of people diagnosed with a mood disorder continues to grow, so too will the number of people who aren’t responding to current treatment. Finding a means to help these people resistant to the current means of psychiatric care is the greatest unmet need in mental health care today.
The Foresight Platform targets this discrepancy in psychiatric treatment options and patient success. Foresight creates a personalized profile of their patients’ genetics, symptoms, and a medical history a baseline for tailoring treatment. Psychiatry has far too long depended on subjective and ostensible decision making--for example, psychiatrists are forced to test the success of roughly 30 antidepressants available, without knowing which medication will be successful.
Foresight, at the intersection of technology and psychiatry, leverages clinical data to prescribe medication safely and effectively; along with holistic treatment services to improve overall health and lifestyle. The forefront of Foresight’s cutting-edge advancement in psychiatry is its prescribing algorithms. Their software--built on a vast database of medical guidelines, drug labels, and peer-reviewed research--sifts through personal factors like genetics, neurotransmitter estimates, and biometrics to direct psychiatrists in a clinical setting towards the best treatment plan available. This reduces much of the uncertainty inherent in psychiatric prescribing.
“Imagine as a patient, before you even enter the building your treatment plan is already constructed with sections dedicated to medications and therapy, in addition to exercise, sleep, and diet regimens. When you walk in the office for the first time, you are given a genetic test to identify medications that will be best for you. Your doctor discusses the plan with you for treatment and monitoring, leveraging technologies like smart scales and wearables.” - Matthew Milford, Co-Founder at Foresight
The world of mental health care is undergoing fundamental changes to both the way we go about treatment plans and the way we understand mental health as a whole. Foresight improves the lives of those facing mental health conditions, blazing the trail to optimal healthcare and access, by applying the best technologies of our time.