Scouting Report-Osmind: An EHR for Doctors and Researchers Targeting Treatment-Resistant Depression
The Driver:
Osmind recently raised $40 million in Series B funding round led by DFJ Growth, with additional participation from Susa Ventures, General Catalyst, Future Ventures, Tiger Global, Pear VC, and angels Lachy Groom, Brent Saunders, Helena Goodman, and Ariel Katz. The US-based startup is a technology platform for breakthrough mental health treatment and research. Osmind is an electronic health record designed exclusively for doctors and researchers who use and study ketamine, other psychedelics, and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for treatment-resistant depression. The platform supports clinicians treating individuals with serious and refractory mental health conditions, such as severe depression, suicidality, PTSD, substance use disorders, anxiety, and OCD, among other conditions. The funds generated from the fundraising round will be used to continue developing and scaling its EHR, carry out research with additional partners, and expand the staff.
Key Takeaways:
Mental Illnesses are common in the U.S with nearly 1 in 5 U.S adults living with a mental illness (52.9 million in 2020) according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
According to one study the national burden of treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is $29–$48 billion annually and assumes that 12%–20% among all patients with depression have TRD.
Spending on mental health treatment and services reached $225 billion in 2019, according to an Open Minds Market Intelligence Report.
In 2020 an estimated 21.0 million (8.4%) adults in the United States had at least one major depressive episode. according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
The Story:
The U.S-based startup Osmind was founded by CEO and Co-founder Lucia Huang and COO and Co-founder Jimmy Qian in 2020. Their mission is to empower clinicians and researchers to develop innovative mental health treatments for patients who have not responded to other therapeutic treatments for depression. Prior to founding Osmind, the 2 co-founders led successful businesses in biotechnology and health tech respectively. Lucia Huang led business and operations at Verge Genomics which used AI for central nervous system diseases like ALS and Parkinson’s. Qian was a medical research fellow at the Stanford University School of Medicine and a researcher in digital health, mental health, and health policy. The two co-founders came together to make an EHR platform for mental health clinicians to manage their patients’ records. The Osmind software will be sold to researchers, psychiatrists, and other specialties as the latest innovation in EHR.
The Differentiators:
Osmind’s software is unique in that it has a number of features that are noton other mental health EHR platforms. For example, since Osmind was built by psychiatrists it includes ketamine infusion and therapy templates, interventional psych templates, synchronized vital sign monitoring, and many more. In addition, while Ketamine has been administered previously, after its recent approval many clinicians are looking at other ways to administer it safely. As noted in an article in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, “we believe ketamine can benefit patients with a wide variety of diagnoses when administered with psychotherapy and using its psychedelic properties without need for intravenous (IV) access. Its proven safety over decades of use makes it ideal for office and supervised at-home use.“
In addition to having templates for Ketamine and other psychedelics, Lucia Huang notes, “we automate a lot of patient-reported outcomes and other sorts of data tracking on patients which is really important for this patient population because providers don’t want to fly blind between visits. They want to know how patients are doing so they can adjust their care plan accordingly”. Osmind attempts to be a broad package that simplifies mental health treatment workflow and enhances the patient experience. The website also allows clinicians to book a free demo for their own practice before buying the product. According to Lucia Huang, co-founder, “Existing tooling is just not serving providers well and it’s causing them to burn out.”
In addition to those noted above, Osmind has several other noteworthy features including streamlined charting workflows, secure patient engagement, and automated outcomes tracking. As mental health research and treatments advance, so should the medical systems that clinicians use. These updates to the EHR system aim to provide users and patients with a better experience by incorporating the tracking of patient health outcomes.
The Big Picture:
Osmind’s solution hhighlights for us the fact that technology currently being used to house patients’ medical records is outdated, and are more focused on physical health. As such refinements are needed to customize them for the demands of behavioral healthcare. This solution is meant to increase clinician efficiency and the availability of patient records through the use of AI and the application of new non-traditional treatments. For the Osmind platform to succeed, clinicians and researchers need to adopt and implement this system starting with psychiatric clinics. The best way to prove its effectiveness is to use Osmind in everyday practices. Gathering data and feedback from clinicians is a good indicator of how well the platform works. Earlier this year Osmind collaborated with Stanford University School of Medicine physicians and scientists to publish the biggest real-world data study on ketamine infusion therapy in the Journal of Affective Disorders. If Osmind receives positive evaluations and release data studies such as this, then the implementation of this EHR is almost guaranteed.
Osmind raises $40M for emerging mental health treatment EHR and more digital health fundings; Osmind banks $40M to scale up EHR for mental health providers with a focus on psychedelic, ketamine therapies; Osmind raises $40 million to expand electronic records for mental health
