Brooklyn Health Raises $6.5 Million to Modernize Mental Health Measurement in Clinical Trials
Summary
It includes an intuitive user experience, native clinician training, real-time flagging of concerning events, powerful data analytics and easier communication between clinical sites and pharmaceutical sponsors packaged in a secure and scalable cloud architecture.Central to Brooklyn Healths approach is OpenWillis, an open-source Python library for digital phenotyping, serving as the foundation of its measurement technology. OpenWillis provides researchers with a simple toolkit for quantifying facial emotions, voice and speech characteristics, motor functioning and other behavioral indicators of mental health. It bridges the gap between academic research and industry applications, fostering a community-driven approach to validation of novel methods in digital phenotyping.Measurement is a core issue in neurology and psychiatry, said Dr. Anzar Abbas, neuroscientist, CEO and founder of Brooklyn Health. Theyre modernizing the technology stack for drug development, moving it from services to software, and empowering sponsors with the tools they need to ensure successful studies.Brooklyn Health has secured partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies, including Bristol Myers Squibb and Boehringer Ingelheim. These early adopters see the potential of Brooklyn Healths approach to improve clinical trial outcomes in pursuit of better treatments for patients.In a recent analysis Brooklyn Health conducted for one of its pharma customers, it was demonstrated that using Willis to score clinical interviews in a psychiatry study improved separation of drug from placebo by 34% as measured by effect size, highlighting the potential impact of the technology on trial outcomes.The company will use the new funding to expand its team, enhance Willis capabilities and accelerate commercial deployments with pharmaceutical companies.