About our project
The problem we solve: The 1.6 million veterans in the United States diagnosed with PTSD/MDD face a multitude of challenges upon returning to civilian life, from difficulty receiving their necessary treatments to trouble with integrating into society socially and professionally. While effective current treatment methods are known, veterans with PTSD/MDD in particular have trouble maintaining medical adherence. This issue is further impacted with the Veteran’s Administration difficulty accommodating all of their patients with over 185,000 veterans waiting thirty or more days for an appointment. The cost of care for veterans with PTSD/MDD is $4-6 billion where these patients also have 3.5-4x the costs compared to others..
About our solution:
Mollitiam aims to empower resilience, optimize treatment, and personalize care by creating a digital ecosystem that coaches and monitor veterans as they work. Mollitiam provides a frictionless platform experience where a mobile application assesses mental wellness while fitness tracker measures for physiological responses to stress through heart rate, exercise, and activity level. In addition to supporting the delivery of the standard of care regimen, Mollitiam adapts to distresses in the patient’s current wellbeing such as providing coping mechanisms in recognition of a panic attack. This detailed information also then empowers the patient to have data-driven conversations with providers to guide further treatment. Mollitiam serves as a comprehensive platform to supplement the VA in improving the mental wellness in Veterans.
Progress to
date:We are translating the needs assessment and concept ideation into development of a minimal viable product. Our conversations with patients and providers with the Veterans Affairs provided a foundation for learning about the current state of affairs for Veterans with mental illness. In pitching our idea at the University of Southern California Center for Body Computing Conference, we spoke with players in research, military, legal, investors, and potential pilot partners.
About Our Team
Creator: Martin Shapiro
Education: Keck School of Medicine, Marshall School of B
Bio: I am a health technology innovator passionate about delivering improved outcomes and genuine patient experiences. At Yale, I focused on medical device design through studying mechanical engineering and patient experience by orchestrating a hospital music visitation program. In addition to my medical training in the joint MD/MBA degree at USC, I aspire to disrupt the healthcare system. I compete in innovation pitch competitions, participate and organize oncology hack-a-thons, and lead digital health projects ranging from California to Cambodia. Complementing this drive for innovation, I am a member of the Health, Technology, and Engineering graduate certificate program.
Title: MD/MBA Candidate
About Team Members
Sara Ma
, B.S. Arts, Technology, and the Business of Innovation
Advanced Degree(s): B.S. Arts, Technology, and the Business of Innovation
,
About Our Company
University of Southern California
Location: 1975 Zonal Ave
Los Angeles, 90033
Founded: 2017
Product
Stage: Idea
YTD Sales: Working on it
Employees: 1-2
How We Help Patients
Mollitiam serves to aid veterans in navigating their journey for mental wellness. The platform helps patients improve their adherence to treatment and will use data to educate patients on their current wellbeing. This data collection will also empower the patient to have more in-depth discussions with their providers to ensure their treatment plan is right for them.
How We Help Physicians
Mollitiam supports providers in the delivery and adjustment of therapeutic alliance. The platform supports the qualitative physician interviews with quantitative metrics to empower the patient’s conversation with providers to support effective clinical decision making. Between brick and mortar appointments, the platform brings a static treatment plan to life allowing for dynamic adjustments in resilience exercises.
How We Help Hospitals
Veterans Affairs faces $4-6B in costs for PTSD and Major Depressive Disorder patients and has the opportunity to save $1.7B by providing evidence-based treatment (RAND). In general, health costs of Veterans with PTSD/Depression cost 3.5-4x compared to the rest of the population. Mollitiam provides a cost-effective scalable opportunity to improve mental wellness of veterans and improve costs.
How We Help Partners
Mollitiam has started conversations with a rideshare company to explore the potential of a partnership to discuss further support of veterans’ reintegration into the civilian workforce. Mollitiam looks forward to furthering the conversation of aligning mental wellness of veterans integration into society.
Challenge Mission
Key Milestones Achieved and Planned
Our main projected milestone is development of the minimal viable product in Q1 of 2018 and to begin the beta pilot with the Veterans Affairs in Q2 of 2018.
Our Competitive Advantages
Mollitiam offers a comprehensive platform with to develop an unmatched psychobiometric profile of resilience and will be focused on a veteran-centric design approach.
Barriers to Entry
The main barrier to market entry is clinical validation for approval for use within the Veterans Affairs.
Traction, Funding and Partners
We are engaged in exploratory conversations with clinical and industry partners.
Innovation Details
Intellectual Property Summary
Mollitiam is not disclosing its propietary information.
Clinical Information
Mollitiam aims to serve as an extension of the clinical care and leverage compliance of current gold standard and evidence-based measures to improve mental wellness. The following studies are a sample which support our holistic approach to supporting veterans:
Breathing-Based Meditation Decreases Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in U.S. Military Veterans: A Randomized Controlled Longitudinal Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4309518/
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Medication Adherence: Results from the Mind your Heart Study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3485414/
Breathing biofeedback as an adjunct to exposure in cognitive behavioral therapy hastens the reduction of PTSD symptoms: a pilot study https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25750106
The impact of an exercise program on posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15869081
Regulatory Status
We plan to explore the clinical efficacy of our concept through a pilot study with Veterans Affairs and will follow the advancement of FDA digital health regulation to target either wellness or FDA approval.
How we will use the funds raised
The funding and grants from this program will be used to promote mental wellness of our veterans through the acceleration of development and validation of this concept. The funding will be used for the development of the minimal viable product and creation of the initial pilot study with Veterans to assess for efficacy.
Thank You
We want to empower Veterans to achieve mental wellness. We are grateful for their service to this country and want to be there for them as they have for us. Choose Mollitiam if you want to support leveraging data-driven therapeutic alliances layered on a foundation of Veterans Affairs services.
