EUROSTARS Fund IMPACHS Project
Copenhagen (DK), July 2017 - IMPACHS, which stands for IMProving Availability and Cost-effectiveness of Mental Healthcare for Schizophrenia through mHealth, is a research project funded by Eureka/Eurostars and the Innovation Fund in Demark. Its task is to design, develop, and provide clinical evidence for the use of smartphone-based intervention technology, with the goal of improviming availability and cost-effectiveness of mental healthcare for outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia.
The two-year project (June 2017 – June 2019) has a total budget of 1.2 million euros and brings together leading European research/academic institutions and SMEs. The IMPACHS project is a collaborative effort among Monsenso, the Psychiatric Research Unit from Region Zealand, time4you, and the University of Hamburg.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is one of the most effective psychological approaches for psychotic symptom reduction, but only 10% of patients receive it due to a growing shortage of professionals. Mobile-based CBT interventions (mCBT), as adjunct to traditional care, provide a unique opportunity to deliver continuous, cost-effective, accessible, non-stigmatizing, and timely support to these patients, promoting the detection of alarming symptoms and reducing the duration of relapses, observed in 80% of patients.
The IMPACHS project aims to develop mobile and context-aware CBT content deployed through the time4you IBT® SERVER (eLearning) platform. The content is integrated into Monsenso Clinic, an mHealth solution for mental illnesses that is HIPAA compliant and has a class 1 CE & TGA mark.
The staff at the University of Hamburg has extensive knowledge in using CBT for individuals with schizophrenia and has published several research papers in medical journals related to the mental disorder. The project will leverage their substantial experience in clinical research on schizophrenia to develop the questions, to be adapted from currently validated clinical measures.
The Psychiatric Research Unit of the Zealand Region of Denmark will begin the 36-month trial using an improved version of the Monsenso Clinic that offers psycho-education through an integrated IBT eLearning platform that deliver continuous, cost-effective, and timely support to individuals with schizophrenia, complementing their therapy.
Personalised triggers, defined jointly by individuals and therapists based on a person’s behaviours, can be used to detect symptom aggravation in real time. mCBT can help lower the severity of a person’s symptoms if the content is personalized and disorder specific.
The objective of the clinical trial is to measure the effect that context-aware CBT content has in the users’ recovery process.
With regard to the clinical trial, Thomas Lethenborg, CEO at Monsenso commented, "Mobile-based, context-aware CBT is a cost-efficient solution to complement a person’s treatment. In some cases it might be the only type of treatment that people are able to access, depending on the waiting list for mental-health services and their financial or geographical situation. This type of solution is the best way to reach more people at a lower cost."
Dr. Hartwig Holzapfel, Director Professional Services, said, "IMPACHS opens new methods of outpatient psychotherapy and patient education. With new, individualized solutions that include learning analytics and adaptive learning, patients are empowered and gain faster access and better education. mHealth solutions are an economical and cost-efficient type of treatment and form an important building block of modern healthcare. Within the IMPACHS project, time4you is responsible for the technical solution based on the IBT SERVER software and system integration. They also support partners in developing content with methodical, didactical, medial and technical expertise."
