DRAPER
SYSTEMD™

Envisioning the future of mental health and wellness fitness tracking.

Radius collaborated with Draper to design the next generation form factor of a fitness tracker for mental health and wellness.

Draper is a U.S. not-for-profit engineering innovation company specializing in the design, development, and deployment of advanced technological solutions for the most challenging and important problems facing the national security, space exploration, transportation, energy, and healthcare industries. Mental health clinicians currently rely on subjective patient self-reporting, and lack objective assessment tools to screen, diagnose, and monitor treatments of patients. Draper is developing SysteMD (System with Sensors to Evaluate Mental Disorders) to provide clinicians with a quantitative aid by assessing, monitoring, and analyzing a patient’s heart rate, perspiration, respiration, and pupil diameter against a set of algorithms. By examining the physiological correlates of emotions and behavior, SysteMD will support clinical evaluation of mental health conditions, including PTSD, depression, anxiety, substance/ opioid abuse, and suicidal tendencies.

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A New Form Factor to Increase Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Reducing Time

Draper has designed and developed a psychophysiological monitoring system, and turned to Radius for help in taking a proof of principle form factor for SysteMD™ to the next level. This would enable them to clearly envision what the future experience of evaluating mental health could look like, as well as how it could positively impact and augment current clinical care practices.

At present, diagnosing and treating mental illness remains stubbornly imprecise and relies primarily on a clinician’s observations and a patient’s self-reporting over an extended period of time. Speeding up the pathway to mental wellness—developing a treatment plan and a better understanding of a patient’s response to treatment—is vital to increasing its efficiency and effectiveness and improving patient outcomes more quickly.

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“Our collaboration helped guide how Draper plans to incorporate human factors, user interface, and convenience elements into its next generation design of SysteMD.”

Dr. Andrea Webb, Principal Scientist, Draper

Facing this challenge meant optimizing the existing form factor, considering the device’s accessibility, mobility, and overall patient comfort when engaging with the system. A closer examination of the technology and the current clinical workflow was key to understanding and developing the right approach for streamlining the device and seamlessly integrating its use into the diagnosis and treatment process.

The Radius and Draper teams envisioned a future state solution and visual aesthetic for SysteMD that communicated its advanced technology and streamlined the system into an approachable package that was more user friendly. Reducing the overall number of touch points and attachments was critical to enable a form factor amenable to evaluating mental health beyond an initial clinical setting, across the continuum of care.

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Flexibility for Deeper Insights and Improved Patient Outcomes

SysteMD is a psychophysiological-based system that senses changes in a patient’s physiological and biological systems and is designed to provide objective, quantitative indicators of mental health. SysteMD has already been evaluated in three pilot studies: one focused on PTSD diagnosis, another focused on depression diagnosis, and a third on therapeutic evaluation for PTSD.

Draper’s SysteMD has potential for broader applications, including anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide. Draper’s research has demonstrated that the classification accuracy of SysteMD is 82-94% for individuals with PTSD. Additionally, SysteMD could help providers evaluate therapeutic progress over time outside a clinical environment.

SysteMD Supports Patients Through the Entire Continuum of Care

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Draper plans to advance the development, implementation, and commercialization of SysteMD™ and ultimately deliver a solution that supports the continuity of patient care and bridges the gap between the clinical setting and the real world.

To learn more about SysteMD™, visit https://www.draper.com/explore-solutions/connected-medical-devices

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