STTR Phase I: Peripheral Autonomic Regulation Training for Mental Health: Enabling Multimodal Peripheral Biofeedback in a Higher Education Setting

Award ID: 2208601

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is not limited to the higher education community, but has broader application at the elementary, middle and high school levels, especially in underserved and marginalized communities experiencing increased rates of suicide and mental health issues. This project's innovative technologies can assist in the mental health crisis in the country's youth, and specifically in the Native American health system as well as Juvenile Detainee/Juvenile Justice systems. This project's implementation of research based on the benefits of game-based intervention coupled with biometric sensing has the potential to provide the technologies necessary to equip the mental health profession to develop options that could replace pharmacological interventions with a path to delivering personalized and measurement-based mental health services. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project uses predictive algorithms, wearable technology and peripheral autonomic biofeedback to provide timely and effective data to enable mental health professionals to enact treatments and therapeutic support for students. Challenges in the increase of adult mental illness, shortage of mental health professionals and shortage of child and adolescent psychiatrists require a move towards tele-psychiatry, collaborative care and innovative technology to bridge the gap between inadequate supply and increasing demand. The proposed approach involves the development of bio-behavioral technology that provides mental health professionals an interactive stress and anxiety evaluation to enable deep, transformative connections between young adults and mental health service providers. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF Program Director: Rajesh Mehta