Can mental health care be administered with the touch of an app?
Peter Hames, co-founder and CEO of the digital therapeutics developer Big Health, is confident it’s possible. In fact, he thinks it’s the future of comprehensive healthcare benefits.
“We’re taking evidence-based non-drug therapies for problems traditionally delivered by human therapists and then fully automating it,” says Hames. “Just pure software.”
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With 64 peer-reviewed clinical papers under its belt, Big Health aims to help millions who experience chronic sleep trouble and anxiety feel better without medication or a therapist. Instead, the cure lies in cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT. CBT challenges daily behaviors and sets time-sensitive goals, which ideally lead to healthier coping mechanisms and thought patterns.
Big Health’s apps Sleepio and Daylight, which provide care for sleep problems and anxiety respectively, essentially offer 24/7 CBT to users. After taking an introductory quiz, the user receives a tailored program to complete at their pace. Weekly guided sessions and progress trackers — a sleep diary in Sleepio’s case — strive to help interrogate and disrupt what haunts one’s peace of mind.
In a clinical trial for Daylight, 71% of participants went from clinical to non-clinical levels of worry. As for Sleepio, 62% of participants noted spending less time awake at night.
To access this care, all one has to have is a smartphone and insurance coverage.
“I think this is a really exciting push towards healthcare becoming more equitable and inclusive,” says Hames.
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Access to mental health care comes with a myriad of challenges. From financial limitations to a lack of knowledge on obtaining treatment, many Americans struggle to receive proper care. According to the 2020 Mental Health Million Project, 45% of Americans deemed to have clinical-level mental problems did not look to professional help.
This takes its toll. Mental Health America’s latest report recorded an increased rate of anxiety and depression since March 2020, with more than 80% of those surveyed showing moderate to severe symptoms of both disorders.
Digital therapeutics may mean a simpler treatment alternative in terms of affordability and adoptability. Sleepio and Daylight each save over $1,500 per employee in healthcare costs. On the insurance end, fees are billed via pharmacy benefit managers who have already approved the technology, making for quick access to coverage. In response to COVID-19, Big Health made its apps available to employers for free, covering 6.5 million employees in as little as 12 weeks.
Although, there are still hurdles to overcome before access to apps like Sleepio and Daylight is considered a mainstream benefit. For example, the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Service has not created a benefit category for digital therapeutics software. The FDA approves neither app for the treatment of insomnia or a general anxiety disorder.
When faced with new technology, there is expected uncertainty from governments and employers alike. Is the product safe? Does it work? How is it any different than the run-of-the-mill wellness app?
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“I think collecting the clinical evidence necessary to demonstrate it is safe and clinically effective is an appropriately huge barrier,” Hames says. “We now have more clinical data than Ambien.”
The future of digital therapeutics will lie with research, trials, and increasing visibility. But, in the meantime, the need to strengthen mental health care benefits is not going anywhere, and neither are innovative technologies that hope to do just that.
