Holmusk has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Singapore’s National Healthcare Group (NHG) and the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), to jointly develop innovative solutions for mental healthcare.
The tripartite partnership seeks to address the unmet clinical needs of patients, populations and healthcare professionals, through leveraging the clinical expertise and translational research capabilities of NHG and IMH, and Holmusk’s expertise in generating insights from mental health real-world data through advanced analytics and digital technology.
Building on its evidence generation platform (NeuroBlu) and digital therapeutics platform (mConnect), Holmusk will work closely with NHG and IMH to co-develop tools that aim to enable earlier detection and intervention in mental health disorders such as depression by using advanced analytics.
They include identifying and validating novel digital biomarkers for mental health through the use of integrated and protected data from clinical records and smartphones, which can provide a more objective measure of an individual’s mental state, as well as conditions including depression and schizophrenia.
Holmusk, NHG and IMH will also co-develop a suite of digital therapeutics and tools for mental healthcare that can be used in hospitals and clinics across primary care and community settings, beginning with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of mental health, with more people seeking help for mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
“We believe that using technology to generate novel insights will transform our current understanding of mental health and lay the foundation for a whole new generation of treatments,” said Nawal Roy, founder and CEO at Holmusk. “Care teams will be able to identify patients with more urgent needs, allowing these patients to get the right support in a timely manner.”
Benjamin Seet, Deputy Group CEO (Education and Research) and Group Chief Research Officer at NHG, said digital technology will change how mental health conditions are diagnosed, monitored, and even treated.
“Digital biomarkers will be yet another source and can supplement clinical expertise to help us reach an accurate diagnosis and also monitor our patients closely,” said IMH CEO Chua Hong Choon. “This, together with a digital suite of care services, signals the potential for a more personalised treatment for patients.”
