mental health

Amazon Looks to Disrupt the Health Care Market & More News

Amazon Looks to Disrupt the Health Care Market with Launch of AmazonCare

Amazon is continuing to deepen its reach into the health care market. This September, Amazon announced the launch of the pilot program AmazonCare, a service for their Seattle-based employees to have virtual doctor appointments, schedule house calls, and refill prescriptions. The program is made possible by a collaboration with Oasis Medical Group, who is providing the physicians for the program (distancing Amazon from access to its employees’ medical information). AmazonCare hopes to cut costs and streamline access to care. It follows on the heels of a partnership with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway, which created Haven Healthcare, a medical insurance for employees. In addition, Amazon recently acquired Pillpack, an online pharmacy that directly competes with giants like CVS and Walgreens. If AmazonCare proves to be successful, Amazon may choose to expand the program to help improve patient care for their employees across the country.

Deadline for Pilot Opportunity is October 7th!

CalMHSA is seeking technological solutions that address a county-shared need of increasing access to mental health services to a variety of target populations. Apply now to be part of a multi-year innovation project that will assess and pilot virtual mental health care solutions. A RFSQ (Request for Statement of Qualifications) will need to be completed by interested companies that have the capacity to meet one of more of the following criteria:

  • Implement technology-based mental health solutions accessed through multiple platforms (for example, computer, smartphone, etc.) to identify and engage individuals

  • Provide automated screening and assessments

  • Improve access to mental health and supportive services focused on prevention, early intervention, family support, social connectedness peer support

  • Decreased use of psychiatric hospitals and emergency services

The multi-year innovation project will consist of an open application period (September 12th – October 7th, 2019) and a subsequent pilot period that allows the opportunity for vendors to be added to the Help@Hand Product Portfolio. If you have a digital technology that has the potential to save lives and serve the mental health needs of Californians, you have less than 5 days to apply!

Showcase Your Health Approach and Apply to GuideWell's Caring for Caregivers Challenge

According to the National Alliance for Caregiving, there were more than 43 million adults in the United States who provided unpaid care to a family member in 2015. People or families who actively provide long-term care for aging, chronically ill or disabled adult family members face a broad array of challenges within their daily lives. These challenges include stress, burnout, financial burdens, career sacrifices, sleep deprivation, depression, isolation and lack of privacy.

GuideWell is diligently tackling these issues with help from health innovators through the new Caring for Caregivers Challenge. The challenge is open to for-profit and non-profit organizations that demonstrate the ability to develop and sustainably deploy innovative, scalable approaches that support family caregivers and improve their ability to care for loved ones. Applications close on Nov. 15, 2019.

For more details, see: https://guidewellinnovation.com/health-innovation-challenge

Calling All Superheroes: Apply to the Life Summit 2019

The AI LA Community (AI LA), a California non-profit comprised of 5,000+ cross-disciplinary stakeholders is hosting their inaugural invite-only Life Summit on October 17th with Innovate Pasadena (IP) at Caltech during Connect Week. This invitation-only Summit at Caltech has been designed for health system leaders—including health care experts, data scientists, med-tech startups, civic service providers and researchers—to work together with successful, passionate professionals from a variety of industries.

The Summit will include facilitated breakout sessions, during which Pasadena ArtCenter students will help visualize and align insights, questions and conversations using design-methodologies.The goal is to develop actionable recommendations in a short period of time while also developing a plethora of new ideas and insights individuals can bring back to their own organization.

This is an opportunity for you to learn how health care systems are thinking about their problems, add value with your expertise while participating in a working group, and meet other like-minded professionals.

Apply here by October 10th!

Announcing CalMHSA's Help@Hand Project!

According to the California Health Care Foundation, from 2012-2014, nearly 20% of Californian adults who sought mental health treatment did not receive it. It is believed that these figures may even be understated, as The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has cited that nearly 60% of American adults with mental illness do not receive any treatment. Unmet mental health needs in California are attributed to a lack of access to appropriate services and providers, as well as the cost of care, a factor that is often exacerbated by a lack of health insurance.

While traditional mental health services play an important role in supporting those in need, novel technologies can complement standard care delivery and provide individuals and communities with more accessible and optimized mental health services that focus on prevention, early intervention, family support, and social connectedness. 

The Help@Hand Project is a California statewide collaborative project to bring technology-based mental health solutions to the public mental health system through a highly innovative “suite” of digital solutions. The project aims to expand access to mental health services by engaging and treating individuals that are underserved in the current traditional care delivery model. With technology becoming an integral part of everyday life, the collaborative hopes to leverage familiar devices as means to connect and better serve those in need. This Help@Hand project will utilize applications on smartphones, tablets, digital devices, or computers as a tool to engage, support and give access to treatment using innovative virtual engagement strategies. Focus areas include:

1.            Peer Chat and Digital Therapeutics

2.            Virtual Evidence Based Therapy Utilizing an Avatar

3.            Passive Data Collection for Early Detection and Intervention

The California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA) is an independent administrative and fiscal government agency focused on the efficient delivery of California mental health projects. CalMHSA members work together to develop, fund, and implement mental health services, projects, and educational programs. As of June 2019, 56 counties and 2 cities are active members of CalMHSA.

The CalMHSA collaborative is currently funding a large-scale initiative to pilot and deploy digital platforms that expand the capacity and capability of county mental health systems. If you are a technology vendor looking for the opportunity to pilot your mental health and well-being digital solution with counties in California, please apply today for a chance to be part of this amazing initiative!

How It Works

What Applicants Need to Know:  The multi-year innovation project will consist of a RFSQ open application period (September 12th – October 7th, 2019) and a subsequent pilot period that allows the opportunity for vendors to be added to the Help@Hand Product Portfolio. After a vendor is included in the “Tech Suite,” all counties participating in the project can view company and product profiles and may choose to implement technologies at a larger scale.

Applications close on October 7th, 2019 – Act fast! Learn more here.