What You Should Know: 

• Cleveland Clinic announced a partnership with TikTok to help users find educational and accurate mental health content. 
• As part of the paternship, TikTok users in the United States will begin to have greater access to information about mental health directly from the TikTok app. 

How It Works

When people search for terms linked to conditions or illnesses such as depression, anxiety, autism or trauma among others on TikTok, they will be directed to information provided by the National Institute of Mental Health and the Cleveland Clinic. Once fully rolled out, this will cover 40 neurological conditions and mental health illnesses.

Why It Matters
“When it comes to researching healthcare information, it is important to get the facts. Mental health has been a growing issue, and we know there has been an increase in online searches around this area, especially among young people. Therefore, it’s important that people have access to credible health information on a variety of platforms, including TikTok,” said Leo Pozuelo, M.D., Chairman of Psychology and Psychiatry at Cleveland Clinic. “We encourage anyone who is struggling to seek out information from a trusted source and to not be afraid to get help from a healthcare provider.”

What You Should Know: 

– Amwell forms a strategic partnership with Discovery Health, a health insurance administrator, which will introduce the first-ever digital therapeutic benefits funded by a health insurer in South Africa. 

– As part of the collaboration, clinicians are now able to prescribe SilverCloud by Amwell, a clinically validated, evidence-based and affordable digital mental healthcare platform, to Discovery Health members.

Benefit Offering Expands Access to Digital Cognitive Behaviour Therapies

This partnership comes at a critical time as Discovery Health’s data from member claims reveal that the prevalence of mental health conditions has steadily increased in recent years. Aligned to global statistics, including the World Health Organization’s measure of a 25% rise in the prevalence of depression since 2018, Discovery Health demonstrates a 19% increase in the prevalence of depression since the pre-pandemic period. Adding to the strain, South Africa’s healthcare industry has also been impacted by the global workforce shortage trend. Rising prevalence with lower supply of essential service underscores Discovery Health’s need to leverage technology to broaden access to treatment via innovative, effective, and affordable digital therapies.

What You Should Know; 

– Highmark Health and Spring Health today announced their collaboration to expand the number of access points to behavioral health care by 40 percent for Highmark insurance members, including children and teens. 

– Highmark’s Mental Well-Being powered by Spring Health will offer multiple levels of support: digital capabilities for daily wellness, one-on-one care navigation, deeper clinical care through in-person or virtual therapy, medication management, and 24/7 crisis support. 

Global Mental Health Solution

Mental Well-Being is powered by Spring Health, the most comprehensive global mental health solution for employers and health plans, and provides members with access to therapy and medication management appointments in an average of three days or less. Spring Health has helped nearly 70 percent of users reliably improve their mental health, with an average time to remission of just 5.9 weeks, as shown in a peer-reviewed study published by JAMA. With Spring Health’s best-in-class technology, Mental Well-Being uses a proprietary assessment screen for acuity across more than a dozen conditions, including generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, substance use disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), post-partum depression, and eating disorders. Each member is recommended a personalized care plan tailored to their assessment results. Members can book appointments with providers in real-time and filter by condition, specialty, gender, ethnicity, and language. 

“Spring Health’s precision technology is changing the mental health paradigm,” said Adam Chekroud, PhD, president and co-founder, Spring Health. “There is a false narrative that increasing access will dramatically increase cost. But third-party-validated results demonstrate that Spring Health has been successful in lowering total health plan spend per participant in the first six months of engagement, especially those with costly chronic conditions. We’re thrilled to partner with Highmark Health as they recognize that providing access to Spring Health’s Precision Mental Health services will help members develop an understanding of how to incorporate behavioral health into their personal healthcare journey in a meaningful way—with proven clinical and financial results.” 

Availability
Mental Well-Being powered by Spring Health will be available to health plan members through the My Highmark member platform. My Highmark is a digital front door to a holistic experience that guides members through individualized health journeys. By creating a pathway that suits each member’s needs and interests, it’s easier to engage in and take the right steps to manage physical, mental, and social health, which ultimately improves outcomes and overall population health.

In the current digital landscape, the impact of social media on youth mental health is becoming an increasingly pressing concern. Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. Surgeon General, recently issued a call to action, urging tech companies and lawmakers to take immediate steps to safeguard the mental well-being of our children and adolescents. 

This timely request is certainly necessary, but it only scratches the surface of a complicated issue.

From my perspective as a psychologist, addiction expert, and researcher who has worked with adolescents in a clinical setting, the narrative becomes even more complex. And, as a mother of three, I’m also personally invested in the well-being of our youth in a world where social media is a ubiquitous presence. 

In joining my personal interest in these issues and my professional experience, I hope to provide a multifaceted perspective to this topic. Understanding the unique challenges faced by today’s youth is the first step toward bringing about change that can help end the mental health crisis they currently face.

What the Data Says

According to the Pew Research Center, as many as 95% of U.S. teenagers aged 13-17 report using a social media platform. This is virtually every teen in America. 

The Pew research also shows that 35% of teens say they use one of the top five platforms (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook) almost constantly. This has troubling implications, as a 2019 research study published in JAMA Psychiatry found that people who spend over three hours a day on social media are more likely to develop mental health problems. 

Digital World, Physical Harm

Many of the negative effects of youth social media use involve issues of body image and identity. This is likely because social platforms offer countless opportunities for young people to compare themselves with others. And, as a consequence, they may experience feelings of alienation when they feel they don’t meet popular standards for physical appearance.

Numerous studies have reported a correlation between social media use and body dissatisfaction, dieting behavior, and eating disorders among young people. This isn’t just a response to passive viewing of the seemingly perfect lives and bodies cascading endlessly down social media feeds; more troublingly, this is part of an active conversation as young people create and respond to content promoting disordered eating. 

Social media is also where cyberbullying happens. According to the Pew Research Center, 46% of teens aged 13-17 have been bullied or harassed online, often over their physical appearance. These online attacks can have severe psychological impacts, leading to depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem.

The Complexity of Adolescence

Adolescence has always been a challenging phase of life, with or without social media. It’s a period fraught with physiological changes, emotional turbulence, and identity formation. As CDC data shows, mental health conditions like depression and anxiety often first surface during this phase of life. The existence of these conditions isn’t just a product of social media; they’ve been long-standing challenges for adolescents. However, social media may be a factor in the record rates of youth depression and suicide we’ve seen in recent years.

Generational trauma and societal pressures compound the challenges of adolescence. Our youth are navigating an environment where the strains of academic achievement, future uncertainties, and societal expectations loom large. Research indicates that these pressures can contribute to stress, anxiety, and other mental health issues among teens. Many teens even take to social media to discuss trauma, and while this can be therapeutic, it can also have an amplifying effect on the trauma itself. 

Loneliness has also recently been highlighted by the Surgeon General as a serious harm to health and well-being in our nation, and loneliness is especially complex in young people. Loneliness can lead to both emotional and physical harm. 

Despite the many ways in which social media allows us to connect with others both near and far, the nature of those interactions can lead to more disconnection than connection. As Dr. Murthy states, “There can be an assumption that because you’re virtually connected through social media, email or text that somehow that protects you from loneliness. Sometimes it can, but not always.”

Harnessing the Positive Potential of Social Media 

Despite the issues that can arise, we must not forget that social media also has transformative potential. Social platforms can be positive places for fostering connections, encouraging empathy, and promoting social activism. For example, many young people use social media to find communities that support their interests, identities, and causes. 

However, the key is to ensure that social media usage is healthy and balanced. To do this, we need a comprehensive approach that combines education, digital literacy, mental health support, and community intervention.

The Crucial Role of Caregivers

Caregiving, especially for the youth grappling with mental health issues, requires a profound understanding of the challenges young people face and the right set of tools to address their needs. Digital tools, such as youth-oriented mental health apps, can offer round-the-clock access to resources and support; this can include self-help guides, meditation and mindfulness activities, or direct access to licensed therapists. 

Caregivers need to be equipped with knowledge about recognizing signs of mental distress, understanding the impacts of excessive social media use, and learning effective intervention strategies. This includes understanding the signs of cyberbullying, identifying changes in behavior that may indicate social media addiction, and being aware of the potential for social media to distort perceptions of reality. 

Digital literacy education for caregivers is also essential; it’s important for caregivers to understand the online environment that young patients spend so much time in. This can help caregivers provide supportive conversations about social media use, establish healthy boundaries, and introduce alternatives to online interaction.

It Really Does Take a Village

A truly effective approach to supporting youth mental health is the “It takes a village” approach, which underscores the importance of a supportive community in nurturing the well-being of young individuals. 

Schools are in a unique position to spearhead this effort by integrating mental health and digital literacy education into their curricula. Beyond education, tech companies have a crucial role to play in creating safer online environments. The Surgeon General has also urged enhanced privacy settings, effective content moderation, and tools that can promote well-being to help make social media a more constructive space for young people.

Similarly, lawmakers have a responsibility to create supportive legislative frameworks. These might include policies for stricter regulation of online content, increased public investment in youth mental health services, and legislation that promotes responsible digital behavior. Community support is another essential part of this endeavor; and this includes online communities. The presence of supportive adults and peers in a young person’s life can significantly mitigate the effects of social media. 

A Comprehensive Approach to a Complex Problem

The issue of social media and youth mental health is not a one-dimensional problem. It’s a multifaceted challenge, intertwined with broader societal issues and generational narratives. It calls for a comprehensive approach that recognizes these complexities, fosters community support, and places education at its core.

As we navigate this new digital era, it is our collective responsibility to ensure that our young people are equipped with the resilience and skills to thrive, both online and off.

About Lindsay Oberleitner

Lindsay Oberleitner, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist who has worked at the intersection of addiction, trauma, and chronic health conditions. Lindsay is SimplePractice’s Education Director. Before joining SimplePractice, she worked as an Assistant Professor at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, and Western Connecticut State University. She also served as Associate Director of the Yale Forensic Drug Diversion Clinic, where she worked to increase access to care and recovery for underserved populations and advance equitable and inclusive treatment through a community engagement approach.

What You Should Know:

– Cartwheel, a platform helping schools tackle the student mental health crisis by delivering affordable, evidence-based telehealth services with no waitlist raises $20M in Series A funding led by Menlo Ventures. Reach Capital joined the round, as did earlier investors General Catalyst, BoxGroup and Able Partners.

– The funding will allow Cartwheel to expand mental health services to hundreds of thousands of new students in current service areas, as well as school districts in new states.

Evidence-Based Mental Health Support

Founded in 2022, Cartwheel has quickly become a trusted mental health partner to schools. The founding team, which includes Chief Medical Officer, Juliana Chen, MD, a board-certified child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist, had collectively spent decades working in schools and community mental health clinics and felt the need for stronger school-community partnership to improve accessibility, quality, and financial sustainability of mental health care.

Today, when a school district partners with Cartwheel, school counselors can refer students for clinical mental health services with no waitlists. Cartwheel’s in-house team of licensed clinicians delivers evidence-based telehealth services, including 1-1 therapy, group therapy, parent guidance, and medication support – all as an in-network benefit covered by the family’s insurance. Operating year-round, Cartwheel allows students to see a licensed clinician at home or at school and during evenings, weekends, school breaks, and summers.

“By combining funding from school districts and health insurers, we’ve helped superintendents ensure the long-term financial sustainability of these services,” added Daniel Tartakovsky, Co-Founder and COO of Cartwheel and previously a mental health policy advisor to the U.S. Surgeon General. “We believe our model will become a blueprint for districts across the country on how to build a long-term school-community partnership, especially as school budgets tighten with the expiration of federal COVID relief dollars.”

Throughout care, Cartwheel works hand-in-hand with school staff and families to ensure the student is appropriately supported. A clinically licensed Program Manager supports school administrators on student cases, parent engagement, and staff training throughout the year; and bilingual Care Coordinators help families with scheduling, insurance, and referrals for additional services. Parents can also schedule weekly guidance sessions with a licensed clinician to discuss ways to support their child, even if their child isn’t interested in therapy themselves. Parents can also join educational workshops on timely mental health topics, ranging from school avoidance to social media use.

What You Should Know:

– Banner Health forms a strategic partnership with Phoenix-based evolvedMD to place mental-health providers at Banner’s primary-care clinics, making it easier for people to receive mental health services they may need.

– The integration of mental health services in primary-care settings will be phased in at Banner Medical Group sites throughout metro Phoenix, starting in the East Valley at Banner’s East Mesa and Queen Creek locations.

– Under the program, a licensed behavioral therapist works with the patient’s primary care providers to provide mental health expertise, psychiatric consultation, ongoing clinical support, case management and insurance support and navigation.

What You Should Know: 

– Headspace, a comprehensive digital mental healthcare provider, and Castell, Intermountain’s value-based care subsidiary, have signed a value-based care (VBC) mental health partnership designed to improve health outcomes through a personalized care experience for members.

– The VBC mental health partnership will provide members with access to Headspace’s clinical offerings including their self-guided content, behavioral health coaching, and therapy in an outcomes-based payment model. This is a notable expansion of VBC for Headspace and is Castell’s first and only digital mental health provider in their network.  

Addressing the Growing Mental Health Crisis

The collaboration between Castell and Headspace aims to address the growing mental health crisis by engaging patients – wherever they may be on their mental health care journey – with robust behavioral health care offerings. The partnership will integrate Headspace’s offerings into Castell’s value-based model of care, which aims to improve clinical outcomes at a population level while reducing costs across the healthcare continuum.

Refer Eligible Members to Behavioral Health Coaching & Therapy

The partnership will allow Castell to refer eligible members directly to Headspace for behavioral health coaching and therapy. Those members will then have access to a team of behavioral health coaches, who respond to outreach in two minutes or less and provide care in the moment of need. Headspace’s coaches help to build coping skills and manage day-to-day stressors, and its licensed therapists are trained in a variety of clinical specialties and treatment modalities for more acute clinical care. Headspace’s care model is built to meet people where they are in the care spectrum and allows members to step up to higher levels of care or adjust over time, as their needs and preferences evolve.

“Our goal with patients is to help them have the most holistic view of their health. Being able to better address and integrate a patient’s mental health status is critical to treating the whole person and elevating the quality of care they receive,” said Jay Zerwekh, CEO of Castell. “We are thrilled to partner with Headspace to give patients access to behavioral health coaching and tools that can be tailored to meet their individual needs.”

What You Should Know: 

• Virgin Pulse and Headspace expand their relationship to make it easier for employers and health plans to provide high-quality, affordable mental health resources.
• Organizations using the Virgin Pulse health and wellbeing platform have access to the full suite of Headspace offerings as part of Virgin Pulse’s partner ecosystem, including behavioral health coaching, therapy, psychiatry, and EAP services. Also, Virgin Pulse will provide Headspace offerings to its employees (approx. 2,000 people worldwide.)

Integrated with Virgin Pulse’s Homebase for Health

Headspace’s app has been available to Virgin Pulse clients for several years through its partner ecosystem and has helped members reduce stress, sleep soundly, develop healthy habits, and feel better. Virgin Pulse’s comprehensive partner ecosystem helps organizations close gaps in care across 25 health and wellbeing categories while addressing the most common and costly health concerns. Now, companies using Virgin Pulse’s Homebase for Health® platform can choose to have access to the full suite of Headspace offerings to support the mental health and well-being of their employees, complementing the impactful guidance from 200 coaches and actionable mental health content Virgin Pulse offers. 

The Headspace suite includes:

• On-Demand Employee Assistance – The Headspace EAP ensures employees have access to a comprehensive suite of services supporting a broad range of mental health needs, including work-life services like legal and financial resources, and organizational services to augment and support teams.
  
• Coaching and Clinical Care – With Headspace Care services, individuals can access the right care at the right time, from behavioral health coaching to complex clinical support. They have 24/7 access to a team of highly trained behavioral health coaches to build coping skills and manage day-to-day stressors related to general well-being, work, family, and relationships, among others. They can also access high-quality, evidence-based clinical care provided by licensed therapists, trained in a range of clinical specialties and data-driven treatment modalities, as well as psychiatrists who collaborate with coaches and therapists to ensure the entire care team is working toward the same care plan.
  
• Self-Guided Care – Employees can access on-demand, self-guided mindfulness and meditation exercises through the Headspace app. With more than 1,000 hours of mindfulness content, users can access evidence-based guided meditations, eyes-open exercises like mindful walks and runs, breathing and wind-down exercises, focus music, sleep content, and more.

What You Should Know: 

• TELUS Health today released its monthly Mental Health Index which revealed that workers who collaborate with others in the workplace have a better mental health score than those who work exclusively independently. 
• The Index also showed that the mental health scores of workers who do not feel supported in their mental health and wellbeing by their employers scored 10 points below the national average.

Collaboration aligns with better mental health

• Nearly two in five (37 percent) workers report needing to collaborate with coworkers all the time; this group has the highest mental health score (72.9), five points higher than workers who do not need to collaborate for their roles (67.8) and nearly two points higher than the national average (70.9).
• Nearly two in five (38 percent) of those surveyed reported that they would prefer to work alone most of the time; the mental health score of this group is more than four points below the national average.
• The mental health sub-score of isolation is the lowest among employees who prefer to work alone most of the time, nearly 12 points lower than employees who don’t prefer to work alone.

Employer mental health and wellbeing support

• The mental health score for workers who do not feel supported by their employer for their mental health and wellbeing needs is 10 points below the national average. Employees who feel less supported now versus early in the pandemic have an even lower mental health score (57.3) than those who never felt supported in the first place (60.6).
• Fifteen percent of workers surveyed indicated that their employer has improved the level of mental health support; this group has a mental health score of 71.5.
  • Laborers are 40 percent more likely than service industry workers, and 30 percent more likely than office workers, to report their employer has improved the level of support.

HealthJoy, Teladoc Health Launch Virtual Primary Care

HealthJoy, a benefits navigation platform that amplifies employer benefit strategies expands its partnership with Teladoc Health to introduce virtual primary care. HealthJoy Virtual Primary Care, powered by Teladoc Health, provides a fully integrated primary care experience that supports members throughout their entire healthcare journey. The solution will further enhance HealthJoy’s comprehensive suite of virtual care offerings that already includes adult and adolescent mental health, chronic care management, dermatology, employee assistance program services, musculoskeletal therapy, nutrition, tobacco cessation, and urgent care.

Lifesum and ŌURA Partner to Connect Nutrition and Sleep

Lifesum, the leading global healthy eating platform, has unveiled a sleep tracking feature in partnership with ŌURA, the company behind the smart ring that delivers personalized health data, insights, and daily guidance, which will allow its users to understand how their dietary choices impact their sleep patterns—and vice versa. The partnership will build on their integration of Health Connect by Android to give Lifesum users another important layer of health data to track. The sleep tracker function will be offered to Lifesum Android users who opt in to the open beta, and the company will roll out the service to all Android users in the coming weeks.

Neuronic and Santa Clara University Partner to Develop Next-Gen Neurotech for Photobiomodulation

Neuronic, a multi-national company focused on light therapy technology, and Santa Clara University (SCU) in Silicon Valley announced a partnership to develop a research project to study photobiomodulation (PBM) guided by real-time brain activity, which will be led by Dr. Julia A. Scott and Dr. Sally Wood.  To address this concern, the research team plans to improve the efficacy of PBM delivery, a non-invasive therapy that uses near-infrared light to pass through the skin and activate molecules that improve blood flow, reduce inflammation, and increase cellular energy.

The researchers hope that their findings will pave the way for more conclusive evidence regarding the effectiveness of PBM for brain injury and neurodegenerative conditions. Further, they envision a future where clinicians can tailor treatments to the individual needs of each patient through the use of real-time electroencephalogram (EEG) data, thereby optimizing results. To achieve this goal, the team will conduct small-scale studies of the device on healthy adults to assess the effects of PBM on brain activity and evaluate protocol designs.

Patient Discovery Partners with AmerisourceBergen for Cancer Care Equity

Patient Discovery Solutions joins global healthcare company AmerisourceBergen’s Trusted Vendor Program. The collaboration enables community oncology practices, hospitals, and health systems nationwide access to Patient Discovery’s Equitable Care Platform, allowing care providers to proactively identify and address social determinants of health to better inform providers and help improve outcomes for cancer patients. AmerisourceBergen’s Trusted Vendor Program is comprised of a portfolio of cutting-edge operational and clinical care solutions. As a partner, Patient Discovery’s Equitable Care Platform will seamlessly integrate within a participating practice’s current systems, helping to improve information exchange for delivering equitable care across multiple sites of care.

Opus EHR Partners with Aroris to Revolutionize Behavioral Health Practices

Opus EHR, an innovative behavioral health solutions provider partners with Aroris, a contract negotiation company, to provide cutting-edge technology solutions that help behavioral health practitioners save time and money while managing payer relationships more effectively. The partnership aims to equip both current and prospective clients with all the necessary tools and features to grow and scale their practice, optimizing profitability from their business efforts.

Doceree Further Expands Global Footprint With Partnership With Hello Health Group 

Doceree, a global platform building unprecedented solutions for HCP programmatic marketing with proprietary data tools, today announced its long-term partnership with Hello Health Group, a leader in health & wellness content development that drives consumer and patient engagement. The latest collaboration will accelerate growth for both companies by combining the world-class HCP targeting and reach capabilities of Doceree with Hello Health’s leading patient and consumer reach and engagement solutions, and strong geographical presence in the South East Asian region. The partnership further establishes Doceree’s presence in eight key markets – Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore, Philippines and Taiwan.  

West-Com Nurse Call Systems, Vitalchat Partner to Bring AI-Enabled Virtual Care Solutions to Healthcare Facilities Nationwide

West-Com Nurse Call Systems and Vitalchat partner to provide hospital systems and other healthcare facilities nationwide with virtual care solutions using artificial intelligence to meet the needs and demands of patients, caregivers, providers and IT leaders. Together, these solutions increase patient and caregiver safety, improve clinical collaboration, enable specialty access and provide for off-site family connection and engagement. They are available through a network of more than 70 active distributors around the country.

What You Should Know:

• Today, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) issued the “Temporary Extension of COVID-19 Telemedicine Flexibilities for Prescription of Controlled Medications” – a temporary rule that extends telemedicine flexibilities adopted during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE).
• ·         The temporary rule will take effect on May 11, 2023, and extends the full set of telemedicine flexibilities adopted during the COVID-19 public health emergency for six months – through November 11, 2023. For any practitioner-patient telemedicine relationships that have been or will be established up to November 11, 2023, the full set of telemedicine flexibilities regarding the prescription of controlled medications established during the COVID-19 PHE will be extended for one year – through November 11, 2024.

Background

On March 1, 2023, DEA, in concert with HHS, issued notices of proposed rulemakings (NPRM) to allow for prescribing of certain controlled medications via telemedicine without an in-person medical evaluation of the patient under circumstances that are consistent with public health, safety, and effective controls against diversion. The NPRMs received over 38,000 comments from the public and DEA, in collaboration with SAMHSA, is actively reviewing input in order to develop a permanent rule.

What You Should Know:

• Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai found that applying machine learning models to data collected passively from wearable devices can identify a patient’s degree of resilience and well-being. The study, published in JAMIA Open, supports the use of wearable devices, such as the Apple Watch, to monitor and assess psychological states remotely.
• The researchers note that mental health disorders account for 13 percent of the burden of global disease and that there are disparities in access to mental health care. Therefore, a better understanding of who is at psychological risk and improved means of tracking the impact of psychological interventions are needed. Wearable devices could provide an opportunity to improve access to mental health services for all people. “Wearables provide a means to continually collect information about an individual’s physical state. Our results provide insight into the feasibility of assessing psychological characteristics from this passively collected data,” said first author Robert P. Hirten, MD, Clinical Director, Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health at Mount Sinai. “To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate whether resilience, a key mental health feature, can be evaluated from devices such as the Apple Watch.”
• The study analyzed data from the Warrior Watch Study, which comprised 329 healthcare workers in New York City who wore an Apple Watch Series 4 or 5 and completed surveys on resilience, optimism, and emotional support. The metrics collected were predictive in identifying resilience or well-being states, supporting the further assessment of psychological characteristics from passively collected wearable data. The researchers intend to evaluate this technique in other patient populations to improve its applicability.
• In essence, the study highlights the potential for wearable devices and machine learning models to monitor and assess psychological states remotely, improving access to mental health services for all people. Further research is needed to refine the algorithm and improve its applicability in a range of physical and psychological disorders and diseases.

What You Should Know:

• Patient violence is a top safety concern for healthcare workers, according to recent Motorola Healthcare Worker Safety report.
• Overall, the data shows that healthcare workers feel safe in their respective medical environments, but are grappling with safety issues that have dominated headlines in recent years. Those that have healthcare professionals most concerned include: patients becoming violent (72%), the impacts of burnout/mental health (61%) and active assailants (42%). Healthcare employees also provided insights on their preferred communication methods for when safety issues do arise in facilities or in patients’ homes.

Improving Safety for Healthcare Workers By Understanding Top Concerns

In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, today’s healthcare professionals are grappling with  safety issues including patient violence, job burnout and active assailants, all while trying to figure out how new home healthcare dynamics may affect their level of personal safety.

To better understand healthcare worker concerns, Motorola Solutions conducted the Healthcare Worker Safety Survey. The study, which was fielded between December 2022-January 2023, features responses from 500 respondents working in the healthcare field, including doctors, nurses, technicians and administrators across the United States. Questions center around issues such as personal safety, mental health, the impact of staffing shortages, home healthcare and workers’ preferred communication methods when emergencies arise.

While the report did find that most healthcare workers generally feel safe going to work each day, personal safety remains a top-of-mind concern for many workers across the country. The key findings from the report are as follows:

1. Patient violence is the top safety concern for healthcare workers: Almost half of all respondents (46%) say that a violent incident has occurred in their hospital/healthcare system over the past year. Some of the biggest safety concerns healthcare workers have include patient(s) becoming violent (72%), the impacts of burnout/mental health (61%) and active assailants (42%).  
2. Personal safety is a top priority for healthcare workers and factors into whether they continue working in the industry: When asked about their top employment priorities during a job search, 26% of respondents said that workplace safety is among their highest priorities. More than half (54%) of healthcare workers noted that they would be at least somewhat likely to quit if a violent incident unfolded in their workplace. Persistent staff attrition and shortages create a vicious cycle that can ultimately cause more staff safety concerns. 
3. Mental health is not getting better—it’s getting worse and compounding safety concerns: Over half of respondents (56%) said that their/their colleagues’ mental health is generally worse now than during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with nurses responding that mental health is extremely worse now (24%). 
4. Home healthcare services are throwing a wrench into safety plans: Several years before the pandemic, a healthcare paradigm shift had already begun. Healthcare providers began to utilize technology and expanded care teams so that treatment could be administered outside of the traditional healthcare setting. During COVID, at-home healthcare services and the number of agencies providing treatment in the home or via telemedicine appointments became more commonplace. And today, patients are increasingly choosing to recover or receive care at home. This shift, however, has created additional personal safety vulnerabilities for caregivers entering the home. Nearly half (47%) of respondents to this survey were unsure if their hospital/healthcare system had different safety protocols for at-home care delivery vs. in a traditional hospital setting.
5. Healthcare employees believe the right safety communications and training will help them feel more prepared for workplace safety scenarios: Specifically, respondents shared that they would feel more prepared if their workplace utilized panic button technology or another 9-1-1 alerting system (55%); conducted safety procedure training (51%); used customized text and/or phone alerts (48%); made safety plans digital and easy to access for all staff (46%); and offered a safety app with resources, plans, and emergency contacts (44%).

What You Should Know:

– Oshi Health, the virtual specialty care company transforming gastrointestinal (GI) health outcomes and economics raises $30M in Series B funding led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT) and joined by existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Flare Capital Partners, Frist Cressey Ventures, CVS Health Ventures and Takeda Digital Ventures.

– Oshi Health is currently available to over 20 million people as a preferred in-network virtual gastroenterology clinic for national and regional insurers, as well as their employer customers. Oshi also partners with community GI practices in a collaborative hybrid model to extend access to care, including reimbursed access to dietary and behavioral therapies proven to improve GI outcomes.

Impact of Digestive Disorders

Digestive disorders affect 1 in 4 Americans and have a high economic burden, driving $135 billion in annual costs – a collective impact greater than diabetes, heart disease and mental health. In traditional GI care, patients lack support between visits and are left on their own to decipher complicated symptoms and coordinate their own care. For many, symptom control remains elusive, and unmanaged digestive symptoms are the #1 cause of emergency department treat-and-release visits1.

Because of its unique ability to diagnose, prescribe, treat and coordinate care, Oshi Health is able to intercept and change the trajectory of unmanaged symptom escalations and drive the most significant outcomes and cost savings in the industry.

Oshi Health’s Virtual Delivery Model

Oshi Health members work with a dedicated integrated team of GI specialists – board-certified gastroenterologists, registered dietitians, GI-specialized mental health clinicians, and nurse practitioners. This high-touch care experience quickly gets to the root causes of chronic digestive symptoms and members come to understand their own dietary and psychological triggers through iterative treatment and response. With Oshi Health, digestive healthcare is convenient and empowering.

Expansion Plans

The Series B funding round will accelerate the next phase of Oshi’s growth, to scale its clinical team nationwide and forge relationships with health plans, employers, channel partners, and provider groups to offer transformational multidisciplinary GI care to the millions of people who urgently need it.

What You Should Know:

Audio-only telehealth visits for both primary care and mental health services remained common at safety net clinics in California since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

The RAND study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that in August 2022 audio-only visits still accounted for 1 in 5 primary care visits and 2 in 5 behavioral health visits among people who received care at Federally Qualified Health Centers in California.

Researchers say the higher rates of audio-only telehealth in safety net settings raises questions about the quality of care and equity for low-income patients, since the effectiveness of audio-only telehealth has not been established.

Key findings of the report include:

• The number of primary care visits increased by 8.5% from February 2020 to August 2022, while the number of total behavioral visits increased 23% during the same period. The increases are likely the result of being able to widely offer telehealth services, even as the clinics lost staff members.

• audio-only telehealth visits for primary care services peaked in April 2020, while audio-only visits for behavioral health peaked in March 2021.

• Within primary care, the decline in audio-only visits from the early pandemic peak appears to coincide with the return of in-person visits rather than growth in video visits.

• For primary care, the proportion of in-person visits increased from 30% in April 2020 to 71% by August of 2022.  Over the same period, audio-only visits decreased from 67% to 21%, while video visits increased from 4% to 7%.

• For behavioral health, the proportion of in-person visits increased from 20% in April 2020 to 37% in August 2022. During that period, audio-only visits for behavioral health care decreased from 74% to 39%, while video visits increased from 8% to 23%.  

• Federally Qualified Health Centers’ continued use of audio-only telehealth may be a result of the clinics and their patients not having access to the technology needed for video telehealth. In addition, since California’s Medicaid program (Medi-Cal) granted permanent payment parity for audio-only visits, there are no financial incentives for the clinics to limit audio-only visits.