A connected wristband that tracks depression and alerts the doctor
updated the 19 January 2016 à 10:44A French start-up has developed an electronic bracelet that’s able to identify some characteristic symptoms of depression. This tool, available soon, could help doctors better detect this disease that’s difficult to diagnose.
Depression has become the leading cause of disability worldwide (1) with 350 million people affected. And if the French are the champions of psychotropic drugs, the disease is not treated better in France than elsewhere. To screen for disease, doctors proceed by elimination and are based on various clinical signs (mood disorders, sleep, fatigue,anxiety, …). Nevertheless, it is estimated that one in two patients were misdiagnosed and “on average, first aid is made five years after the first symptoms of psychological vulnerability,” says Denis Fompeyrine, doctor of clinical psychology. These alarming figures gave an idea to the psychologist and together with an engineer they’ve developed a bracelet that’s able to identify physiological changes suggesting a depression.
A BRACELET FOR Detecting DEPRESSION AT THE EARLIEST
“This object collects all the data for the clinical model of the disease,” says Denis Fompeyrine, CEO and founder of the start-up Myndblue. Using sensors, the bracelet can record various physiological data (heart rate, blood pressure, temperature body etc.) but also some behavior of an individual, his environment or electronic emissions to which they are exposed to. The founders of the project have managed to develop an algorithm that’s able to analyze and identify the markers that match to those of depression. Doctors will be alerted via their computer or smartphone with warning signs of depression in one of their patient. They can act quickly or in prevention if it is a stroke of blues or discomfort, or treatment if the disease is indeed present.
Source: (1) World Health Organization, (2) Press the Polytechnic, in December 2015.
Maureen Diament
