PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - May 11, 2017) - Mindstrong Health, a startup transforming the diagnosis and treatment of behavioral health disorders through ubiquitous mobile technology, today announced that Dr. Thomas Insel, former Director of Clinical Neuroscience at Alphabet subsidiary Verily and 13-year Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), has joined the company as President and Co-founder.
"One in five people has a mental health condition. And despite a lot of exciting science, neuropsychiatry has yet to embrace the possibilities of mobile technology to measure and intervene in mental health treatment and disease management," said Dr. Insel. "The technology that Mindstrong has developed will close the gap between mental health diagnosis and ongoing disease management. Five years from now, the day-to-day management of mental health will look very different thanks to the technology that Mindstrong has developed."
Prior to joining Mindstrong Health, Dr. Insel was responsible for overseeing advances in mental health, neuroscience, diagnostics and therapeutics at NIMH. He also led the development of Verily's (formerly known as Google Life Sciences) medical technology efforts within the area of mental health.
"Dr. Insel is one of the world's leading authorities in the field of clinical neuroscience and mental health. His research background, paired with his truly progressive embrace of technology to further his efforts, makes him a tremendous asset to our team," said Founder and CEO Paul Dagum. "Together with Dr. Insel and Dr. Klausner, our goal for Mindstrong is to redefine mental health diagnosis and management through the use of clinically proven technology."
The founding team of Mindstrong Health includes the former Director of the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Richard Klausner as Executive Chairman and Co-Founder. "During the 1990s with the introduction of modern molecular technologies, we fundamentally transformed the diagnosis and treatment of cancer from an empirical approach to one of precision," said Klausner. "With Mindstrong Health's technology, we are providing objective measures of brain health in the day-to-day life of patients that promise to deliver the same transformation to mental healthcare."
About Mindstrong Health
Mindstrong's patented science and technology was developed by Dr. Dagum, and is based on four years of extensive clinical studies applying machine intelligence to human-computer interactions patterns. Dr. Dagum's work creates, for the first time, a way to objectively and continuously measure brain function day-to-day providing new insight not previously possible with traditional neuropsychological and imaging techniques. Mindstrong products are in clinical trials in numerous partnership projects with payers, providers, academics and the pharmaceutical industry to bring these new tools to bear on answering the most fundamental questions in behavioral health.
The company is based in Palo Alto, CA and is backed by Foresite Capital, ARCH Venture Partners, Berggruen Holdings, the One Mind Brain Health Impact Fund and an undisclosed strategic investor. Its Board of Directors includes Richard Klausner, MD, Foresite Capital CEO and Founder Jim Tananbaum, MD, Former Medco President Robert Epstein, MD, Thomas Insel, MD, and Paul Dagum, MD PhD.
To learn more about Mindstrong Health, visit: www.mindstronghealth.com