Ketamine One Capital Ltd, which is focused on consolidating medical clinics and becoming a North American leader in mental health treatments, has announced that it will be conducting its previously announced single arm, observational, biometric research studies in association with Biostrap USA LLC across multiple locations in Canada and the United States.
Biostrap offers clinically validated wearable devices and a remote monitoring platform that utilizes science-driven artificial intelligence (AI) in combination with advanced health analytics and personalized actionable insights.
Vancouver, British Columbia-based Ketamine One said the research studies are the first of their kind and will involve the collection of real-time, advanced data from 200 patients to gain insights into depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Biostrap’s devices measure oxygen saturation, respiration rate, heart rate variability, heart rate, sleep analysis, arterial health, and more.
READ: KetamineOne plans inaugural research studies targeting depression and post-traumatic stress disorder
The data from the studies will be analyzed to identify “biometric signatures” that arise over the course of ketamine treatments, which may eventually help physicians make “better dosage and timing decisions,” as well as reduce the chance of relapse for their patients, said the company.
Once the studies are completed, Ketamine One said it will implement a "proprietary interactive dashboard and data management tool." It will have the ability to “analyze, monitor and visually display key ketamine treatment outcomes”, while allowing clinicians to interact with the data, enabling them to make “well-informed decisions”, said the company.
“Clinicians will have the ability to track patient biometrics, medically validate outcomes, and become informed of AI-based depression predictions in order to enhance the treatment experience while increasing patient safety,” it added.
“While various studies have validated the efficacy of Ketamine therapy for the treatment of mood disorders including depression, few to none have characterized the individual physiological responses associated,” said Kevin Longoria, Chief Science Officer at Biostrap.
“By incorporating clinically validated digital health technology such as the Biostrap, researchers have the ability to better understand the dose-response relationship on the path to developing precision treatment protocols to optimize patient outcomes and safety. The potential of this relationship goes beyond research with practical applications related to early detection of physiological changes that may prompt follow-up treatments,” he added.
Becoming a more data-driven mental health organization will enable Ketamine One to produce better treatment outcomes and leverage it as a competitive advantage in the market. To prep for the rollout of Biostrap’s wearable devices, Ketamine One said it has implemented advanced endpoint exploit and ransomware protection and other network security solutions to ensure data privacy and the security of patient information.
“Ketamine One staff have also undergone HIPAA training and certification, and the company is fully compliant with data privacy and security standards in the US and Canada,” said the company
“The advent of AI and machine learning algorithms has spurred incredible advances in the predictive power of wearable health tracking devices and neurocognitive tests. The convergence of these technologies with patient-reported outcomes via mobile apps now provides a wealth of data that was not available to physicians even a few years ago,” said Ketamine One interim CEO Adam Deffett. “We are excited to conduct the Research Studies and I would like to thank Biostrap for their involvement and support thus far. This is a significant opportunity to work together to learn more about depression and PTSD, and also work towards a purpose driven digital therapeutic tool.”
Facilitating data collection through a reliable wrist-worn device, Biostrap uses machine learning to provide actionable data to improve sleep, recovery, and performance. It analyzes each heartbeat for 29 unique parameters on its secure servers to ensure data reliability.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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