Eugene, Oregon-based Kusana Health is engaged in multi-institutional research efforts aimed at creating new types of artificial intelligence to advance the treatment and prevention of mental health and substance use disorders.
The software company has been awarded a $17.9 million contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create a large-scale health behavior model (LHBM). The goal is to train AI models on smartphone and other wearable data, such as sleep, mobility, and language use, associated with large-scale electronic health records (EHRs).
“This work strengthens Kusana’s current efforts to move behavioral health care from episodic, subjective assessments to continuous, data-driven health promotion, reducing health spending, improving quality of life, and serving populations who currently lack access to effective behavioral health supports,” Tony Skripa, Kusana Health COO and project co-investigator, said in a statement.
In April, HHS announced the formation of the first research team as part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency in Health’s (ARPA-H) Evidence-Based Validation and Innovation for Rapid Treatments in Behavioral Health (EVIDENT) initiative. Other participants include Duke University, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Yale University Stress Center.
Ksana’s project will be completed in phases, starting with “proof-of-concept” studies and pilot data collection, according to the announcement. It will then be expanded to tens of thousands of participants across multiple health systems.
Participating health systems include Providence, MedStar Health, and the University of Washington. Providence and MedStar will lead participant recruitment, and the University of Washington will lead computational modeling efforts.
The Reno, Wash.-based health system announced in a May 14 press release that recruitment will begin across Providence this summer, with all patients 18 and older eligible to participate.
Dr. Staci Wendt, research director for the Providence Health Research Accelerator, said participants will download Ksana’s app, participate in activities for three months, and agree to include their EHR.
“Behavioral factors play a major role in the vast majority of patient conditions that the medical industry treats,” Dr. Bill Wright, Providence’s principal investigator, said in a statement. “Given the prevalence of smartphones and watches, the ability to leverage the sensing capabilities of these devices and link behavioral signals to patient health records can create new models for personalized, proactive behavioral health care. This innovation will be a key component of future delivery models.”
