Monsenso ApS, a Copenhagen-based technology company, has received a grant of over 3 million DKK (€410 000) from Innovation Fund Denmark to develop and trial a mHealth solution for patients suffering from depression and bipolar disorders.

The mHealth solution aims to reduce the number of readmissions among psychiatric patients. The development and trial is part of the research project, RADMIS; a collaborative project between Monsenso, the mental health services in the Capital Region of Denmark, and the Technical University of Denmark. The overall budget of the project is 10.1 million DKK (€1.3 million).

Monsenso ApS is an innovative technology company offering an mHealth solution to help optimize the treatment of mental disorders. The project’s focus is on depression and bipolar disorder which are the leading cause of disability worldwide; imposing a very high burden for society in terms of cost, lost productivity and mortality. Patients with these affective disorders are hospitalized more frequently than any other patient groups. The treatment of depression and bipolar disorder includes medication, psycho-education, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).

The RADMIS project aims to establish clinical evidence that Monsenso mHealth solution can reduce the number of hospital readmission of patients with depression and bipolar disorder. It also seeks to decrease the symptoms and increase the quality of outpatients by using a unique method of smartphone CBT.

“This intelligent smartphone-based monitoring and treatment platform for depression and bipolar disorders is the first of its kind; there are no similar solutions available on the market.” says Thomas Lethenborg, CEO at Monsenso.

Smartphones are equipped with powerful sensing, computation and communication capabilities so they provide a unique platform to monitor and treat patients with depression and bipolar disorder. They also provide a rich multi-media and communication platform for Ecological Momentary Intervention (EMI) enabling patients to receive context-aware treatment in real-time, including medication reminders and CBT.

The project’s main goals during the clinical trials are to develop this smartphone CBT method to show evidence that it has reduced the number of hospital readmissions and improved the symptoms of depression and bipolar disorder.

“Once the clinical trial is completed, we will have the necessary evidence to proof that smartphone-based CBT is highly scalable and it helps reduce hospital readmissions of psychiatric patient.” says Thomas.

The success of this project will allow health care systems to reach out to the 75% of the population in Europe who need treatment but remain untreated.

Monsenso has also recently received 1.575 million DKK (€211 000) from the Innovation Fund to start clinical trials that support the treatment of anxiety and borderline personality disorder (read more about it here).