insaine therapy, pt. 1

Thalia takes a deep breath and grabs Greer's hand. She silently apologizes to Greer for having to hold her clammy hands. It's their ritual before big presentations. Two deep breaths holding hands and a silent look of affirmation between the two of them. Greer doesn't need it as much as Thalia does, but she always obliges. Thalia is a little in awe of how Greer can command a stage despite how shy she is in real life. It's like she had wanted to be an actor, and every presentation is her next great performance. Then again, Greer talks about conferences with such disdain. Maybe it's easier to command a stage when you don't give a shit about who's out there.

Thalia is different though. She knows exactly who's attending and just how important they are to the research community. Some of the best minds in psychiatry, psychology, and neuroscience will be watching them present. Dr. Kelly keeps telling them to claim their device is a "game-changing discovery", but that feels like too much pizazz. Thalia sees this simply as a necessary evolution to more effective therapeutic treatment. Something to help even an average therapist make better treatment plans.

Thalia's stomach grumbles. She reminds herself to stay grounded in this purpose. It usually helps her find the reassurance she needs to lock down her stage fright. Plastering a well-worn smile on her face, she releases Greer's hand and pats down the front of her suit.

"Ready?" Greer whispers.

"Yes."

Therapist Assist. That's the nickname they call the device internally. Not very creative but good shorthand for its purpose. Thalia likes the pseudo rhyme too. Officially, they call the device Epidermal Cognitive and Behavioral Data Aggregator, or ECBDA for short. Thalia looks up at the ten foot screen introducing ECBDA to the crowd. Of course, they'd all probably read her paper by now.

Thalia had spoken at conferences before, but not like this. This was something that would change the way patients interact with their therapists. Something she felt the community desperately needed after the influx of people who signed up for therapy in the pandemic. The trends haven’t slowed down since. Traditional practices just couldn't keep up with the growing demand, and those telehealth companies who claimed easy access to trained providers… In her opinion, they had good intentions and terrible execution.

"It's long been acknowledged that changes in our neurochemistry precipitate our behavioral patterns." Greer begins. "But what if we can continuously collect and match neurochemical patterns with associated behavioral outcomes and the resulting neurochemical reactions in real-time social settings? That's the question we started with."

Thalia observes Greer's steady tone, following her laser pointer as she explains the delicate neuroscience behind Therapist Assist's functionality. It started as a theory really. They didn't expect it to lead to an actual device. But Greer had insisted she meet with Patel, the programmer Greer plays video games with, to see if he could turn their theory into reality. Lo and behold. She readies herself to jump in, right on cue.

"The stakes for effective therapeutic intervention have never been higher. Millions of people sought therapy for the first time during the 2020 pandemic. I don't need to tell you that the demand overwhelmed practices, sparking a wave of new solutions that made telehealth sessions more accessible. But not everyone is lucky enough to speak with the caliber of providers here today. On premise, talk therapy relies on first-hand narratives crafted by the teller. These are inherently subjective, certainly from the patient's perspective and, though we try to minimize it, even within the provider’s analysis. An experienced provider can sift through stories and break down perceptions to discover the truth. They identify behavioral patterns and gradually reinforce healthier ways of thinking or reacting. "'Doing the work', as the kids call it."

She pauses as the crowd offers a polite chuckle. "And yet, providers are still human. They have long days, their patience wears thin, and sometimes, they make mistakes. In the US alone, there are over 50,000 mental health graduates entering the workforce every year, which means that over 20% of total available providers have less than one year of licensed experience. Considering that there are an estimated 34 million American adults seeking effective treatment, about 23% of which have diagnosable moderate to severe mental health conditions, this is a huge amount of responsibility, to say the least.

The latest study from Frinkter and Malin suggested that patients with conditions categorized as ‘moderate’ to ‘severe’ require a minimum of 3-9 hours per week of therapeutic intervention, in addition to psychiatric intervention, to show statistically significant progress. When you add this to a growing administrative burden, the strain on our mental health providers is unprecedented.

ECBDA is designed to help alleviate some of this burden, so that providers can focus on delivering the best care to patients. It's a minimally-invasive device that sits just behind the patient's ear, and it collects real-time data of the patient's neurochemistry and resulting behavioral patterns. When combined with the patient's subjective recollection of the events and perceptions impacting their daily behaviors, this is a powerful tool to aid experienced providers with more objective, efficient, and robust analysis - and provide a training tool to less experienced providers. We believe that ECBDA can usher in the next wave of data-informed care, applying it to achieve more effective therapeutic results."

"Why theorize, when you can analyze real-time data. We are scientists, after all, not gamblers," Greer says with a smile.

Thalia raises her brow. She isn't prepared for Greer to go off script, and certainly not if it risks offending the audience. But to her surprise, she hears actual laughs. She continues explaining their analyses, losing herself in the details, as usual.

"Thank you to Axius for giving us the chance to share our findings with you all,” Greer concludes, “If you have any questions, we'd be happy to answer them at our booth on Main Level, Section 4. We'll be there directly following this session until 4:30. I'm Dr. Greer Riordan, and this is Dr. Thalia Weaver."

"Thank you," Thalia adds.

Thalia takes a deep breath and retreats backstage.

"That wasn't so bad," Greer says.

"No, not so bad."

They head to the booth to take questions.