The Queen鈥檚 Partnerships and Innovation (QPI) team supports the University鈥檚 strategic goal to build community partnerships and fully embed Queen鈥檚 in the community. With support from external funding, the QPI team offers numerous services, resources, and programs to support entrepreneurs, including those from Queen鈥檚, and to accelerate the growth of startups and small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within Kingston and Eastern Ontario.
According to the , around 450 million people currently struggle with mental illness. Depression is one of the leading causes of disability and suicide is the fourth top cause of death for people between the ages of 15-29. WHO indicates that the gap between those who need help and those who can access care is quite substantial. It is an issue on a global scale.
The founders of , a SaaS platform that proactively triages and monitors patients to simplify the digital-first delivery of mental health services for care teams, aim to help fill that gap.
There is much less stigma around mental health than there used to be. Getting treatment is more normalized 鈥 how it is talked about in our communities and how we deal with it 鈥 through counselors, psychotherapists and/or psychologists. But with an increased demand for these services, there remains a gap in service availability.
鈥淭he waitlist for an initial evaluation can be anywhere from two to nine months,鈥 says Dr. Mohsen Omrani, CEO and one of the founders of OPTT. 鈥淧sychiatric care has the 成人大片 lag. But not everyone who is evaluated needs psychiatric intervention 鈥 we know that only about 15% do. The other 85% of the population can be supported with various forms of non-psychiatric care interventions. Our platform helps to bring this insight to the triage process, so that patients can rapidly be referred to the proper level of care, speeding the process and cutting down or eliminating that waitlist.鈥
OPTT鈥檚 algorithms work to ensure each patient who requires and requests care, is receiving the right care at the right time based on the input from the patient. This might be psychiatric intervention, it might be counseling resources or it might be independent homework. The platform also has pre-designed content that can be delivered to the patient from the clinician.
鈥淓veryone鈥檚 needs are different. Some people need self-guided materials, some need low levels of care from a clinician, and some need more than that,鈥 explains Dr. Omrani. 鈥淥ur platform also helps to triage the levels of care.鈥
OPTT鈥檚 AI engine is focused on trying to understand and provide an accurate measurement of patients鈥 mental health status and provide resources and content to facilitate the care for the patient. In the cases of patients who can complete self-guided materials or low-level care, the patient completes the assignments from the clinician and the clinician provides feedback. Using this system, clinicians can handle 3-4 patients in one hour rather than just one person.
鈥淓ven if there was no issue with accessibility or money, our health care systems still cannot handle the volume and needs in the current process of one patient per hour,鈥 says Dr. Omrani. 鈥淲e need creative solutions to address the number of people looking for help.鈥
Mental health needs to be approached with the same degree of seriousness as any other physical health issue. Dr. Omrani explains that the solutions provided from the OPTT platform have been clinically validated for safety and efficacy. He explains that all content on the platform is connected to clinical trials or peer-reviewed articles to ensure validity.
The AI variables that determine an individual鈥檚 mental health status are connected to evidence-based research and clinical trials as well. While there is no single variable to defining mental health status, OPTT uses natural language processing as its primary evaluation marker.
鈥淲e chose to work with the variables that we think are the most important but, at the same time, we know there are other important variables 鈥 like pitch or tone of voice, sleep patterns, gait and posture, interest level of hobbies, or even changes in hygiene,鈥 says Dr. Omrani.
A recent partnership with another SaaS company in the mental health space, , is helping to strengthen OPTT鈥檚 evaluation process. Canary uses pitch or tone to evaluate mental health. With Canary Speech, patients don鈥檛 need to write about their symptoms, but rather can leave voice impressions, allowing the platform to triage based on both the words used as well as the sound of a person鈥檚 voice. Canary is an add-on feature to the OPTT platform which works in concert with OPTT features.
The Canary partnership came about through networking at a conference last year. 鈥淭hey were very open to collaboration and the chemistry between our teams just clicked,鈥 says Dr. Omrani.
Dr. Omrani acknowledges the pandemic has been a major catalyst for growth. 鈥淲e are seeing growth in digital health and medicine across the board,鈥 says Dr. Omrani. While digital technologies haven鈥檛 changed much in the last few years, the acceptance of these technology solutions through the pandemic, while everything shut down, created an openness in the health fields to start using more online platforms to deliver care and services.
OPTT is experiencing growth in partners, users, and team. The company recently hired two Masters鈥 students and one PhD graduate, all from Queens University. OPTT鈥檚 growth is also supported by numerous advisors with industry and technology expertise.
鈥淲e could not have gotten to this point if not for the great start we had through various incubators and accelerators,鈥 says. Dr. Omrani. 鈥淨ueen鈥檚 Partnerships and Innovation has paired us with some amazing advisors and support resources that have contributed to where we are now.鈥 A member of Queen鈥檚 Startup Runway, OPTT has also completed DMZ鈥檚 Biomedical Zone, the Morgan Stanley Multicultural Innovation Lab in 2022, and the Endless Frontiers Labs from the New York University School of Business. OPTT has recently been shortlisted for the .
As CEO, Dr. Omrani is now finding himself in a position to offer advice to others. On January 26, 2023, for an inspiring discussion about his journey and lessons learned from his experience of growing a digital health company.
鈥淚f you have an idea that could change someone鈥檚 life 鈥 do it. Don鈥檛 wait for someone else to do it. Be the change you want to see,鈥 Dr. Omrani said during the Startup Grind event. 鈥淚f you want a new approach to something, you need to start doing it.鈥
As for what is next in OPTT鈥檚 future, Dr. Omrani says the company is focused on expanding into the US market.
鈥淭he Canadian healthcare system has a lot of catching up to do in terms of technology 鈥 they are one of the few industries still using fax machines!鈥 he says. He adds that the US market is much more accepting of using technology in the medical digital health space. 鈥淲e intend to integrate different technologies to provide a 360-degree view of patients鈥 mental status, and to become the 鈥業ntel chip鈥 in mental health practices, to facilitate robust measurement-based decision-making.鈥
To achieve the ultimate vision of global acceptability, OPTT is considering pursuing Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Software as a Medical Device approval. This is a complex, phased process that QPI鈥檚 Regulatory Advisor is helping to map out. Given the numerous resources assembled, OPTT is in a great place to tackle the challenge.
Queen鈥檚 Partnerships and Innovation is involved in several projects enabled with support from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario). Queen鈥檚 Startup Runway is offered through the Scale-Up Platform (SUP), an initiative supported by FedDev Ontario and led by Invest Ottawa in Eastern Ontario and in which Queen鈥檚/QPI is a regional partner. The SUP Project provides programs and services to firms that are demonstrating high-growth or the potential for high-growth. QPI鈥檚 mentorship and advisory services for health innovation companies are offered through the Health Innovation Kingston (HI YGK Project), an initiative also supported by FedDev Ontario and led by the City of Kingston and in which Queen鈥檚/QPI is a local partner. The HI YGK Project aims to encourage health-innovation focused startups and SMEs to develop and grow in Kingston.