Medibio bags second clinical trial agreement with world-leading Mayo Clinic
Digital mental health company Medibio Limited (ASX: MEB) has inked a five-year clinical trial agreement with the United States’ top hospital: Mayo Clinic.
According to Medibio, it is the first company to use objective biometrics to assist in diagnosing and treating mental health disorders including depression. The objective testing system facilitates more accurate screening, diagnosing, monitoring and management of depression and other disorders.
Objectivity in diagnosing mental health disorders is difficult due to the subjective nature of current clinical assessments. As a result, less than 10% of patients receive optimal treatment.
The agreement with Mayo Clinic will enable clinical trials to be carried out using “one or more” of Medibio’s products. The trials will also assist with future product development.
Medibio’s Digital Mental Health Platform works by using the company’s patented biomarkers from the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and cloud-based analytics to cost-effectively assist clinicians with screening, accurately diagnosing and objectively confirming a treatment’s effectiveness to boost health outcomes.
Previous research has linked mental illness to ANS dysregulation and abnormalities in circadian heart rate wave forms.
Morphological analysis of circadian heart rate waveforms gives objective indications of “core” physiological differences between different mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety.
This is Medibio’s second agreement with the Mayo Clinic, which is renowned globally for its psychiatry and psychology services and creating innovative solutions that become commonplace in practice.
“The clinical trials expected to come from this agreement will further solidify Medibio’s research and approach on effectively screening, as well as differentiating types of mental illness, and monitoring drug therapy effectiveness and adherence for mental patients,” Medibio’s chief executive officer and managing director Jack Cosentino said.
Mental health is the world’s largest clinical problem with an estimated 350 million people suffering from depression. In the US, depression is the leading cause of disability.
The World Health Organisation claims mental illness will result in $6 trillion in global health care costs.
Australia, alone, spends $12.6 billion annually on treating depression.