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Innovation 'Elevator Pitch':
Feeliom prevents anxiety & depression by helping people stay in touch. Our mobile app's unique Sensory Language tackles loneliness, enabling emotional expression without the need for words, and generates continuous insights into wellbeing using AI.
Overview of Innovation:
Feeliom is a mobile app that empowers people to intuitively express emotions through technology; without the need for words. It does so by emulating our sense of touch.
Touch plays a prominent role in sharing emotions. and has many positive effects on health. A gentle stroke can increase the release of oxytocin and serotonin, which improves wellbeing and positively regulates affection and social behaviour.
A science known as haptics lies at the intersection of touch and technology. By blending haptics with sound and visual feedback, Feeliom creates a tangible representation of how we feel that can be easily shared with others.
Not only does its patented Sensory Language create an immersive communication experience, Feeliom allows us to quantify and analyse a single emotion across over 10,000 data points.
This quantitative data is brought together with Artifical Intelligence (AI) to analyse feelings shared on a continuous basis. This enables Feeliom to contextualise emotions across the entire spectrum of one’s wellbeing; determining variance, trends and profundity of risk for mental health problems on a personalised basis.
These insights are subsequently used to help the individual gain a continuous understanding of their mental health/wellbeing, including recommendations for improvement, and to proactively connect them with the appropriate care: Whether that’s from family and friends, colleagues at work or healthcare professionals.
 
There are several modules within Feeliom that can be used to communicate emotions, enabling the app to gain an evermore well-rounded understanding of one’s state of mind. These lie in stark contrast to the verbal methods for sentiment analysis upon which most methods currently rely.
Feeliom will help to identify symptoms of stress, anxiety & depression and prevent them, however, all diagnoses must be carried out by a qualified professional. Patients may allow healthcare professionals to access their data in real-time, particularly in the case where the app plays a supportive, as opposed to a preventive role.
Specific Applications:
1. People with impaired verbal communication - such as those with learning disabilities or dementia - often face disproportionately higher rates of depression linked to loneliness. Feeliom overcomes this through touch.
2. An emerging body of evidence demonstrates that depression and physical disorders, including diabetes, are commonly comorbid making it an increasingly important clinical and global health issue.
Stage of Development:
Evaluation stage - Representative model or prototype system developed and can be effectively evaluated
WMAHSN priorities and themes addressed:
Mental Health: recovery, crisis and prevention / Long term conditions: a whole system, person-centred approach / Wellness and prevention of illness / Clinical trials and evidence / Digital health / Innovation and adoption / Person centred care
Benefit to NHS:
Depression and anxiety are two of the heaviest burdens on health in the UK and worldwide. The effects of depression and anxiety cost the UK £32 billion each year and, while depression accounts for 33% of the burden of disability, it attracts just 2% of Public Health Spending. According to the King's Fund, only 0.1% of NHS spending on Mental Health services in 2007 went towards prevention, despite the fact that it represents good pay-back in the long-run both for people’s health & wellbeing and for NHS finances. In the case of suicide prevention, for every £1 spent, the return on investment from such interventions is estimated to be around £39. Prevention is the only way to achieve lasting change in mental health and end the stigma, particularly in the case of depression; the greatest risk factor for suicide. Overcoming stigma is at Feeliom's core, enabling people to self-express without the need for words.
In most parts of the UK, waiting lists for therapy are over nine months, or there is no waiting list at all because there are no therapists. As a result, patients are often provided with medication prescribed by the GP but do not receive sufficient counselling to tackle the roots of the problem.
Tackling depression and anxiety, particularly from a preventive perspective, requires we overcome one of the few subjects more stigmatised than mental health: Loneliness. Marked cross-sectional associations exist between loneliness and Common Mental Disorders (CMDs), including depression and anxiety for people of all ages.
Feeliom bolsters people's primary care networks to prevent mental health problems, creating both efficiency and financial savings downstream. Friends, family, work and GPs play a key role in reducing loneliness and preventing anxiety & depression by providing value in the form of healthy social relationships where people do not feel embarrassed to admit their feelings.
Not only does Feeliom support people by strengthening their relationships with others, but also by bettering their self-understanding; enabling them to take proactive mental healthcare into their own hands.
Feeliom reduces the burden on the healthcare system through prevention and, in more severe cases, supports people throughout their treatment. By seamlessly integrating health into communication, continuous insights into wellbeing that may otherwise have never been accessible provides professionals with a deeply personalised and broad perspective from which to diagnose and treat.
Initial Review Rating
4.40 (2 ratings)
Benefit to WM population:
The population of the West Midlands is particularly diverse with people from a range of different cultural backgrounds. Often, in the western world, BME populations suffer from a higher incidence of mental health problems than most. In the case of refugees, care is of critical importance.
Feeliom's Sensory Language, based on our sense of touch, provides a unique, cross-cultural approach to the prevention of mental health problems. It overcomes the verbal barriers people so often face when expressing emotions, particularly when they are not speaking their native tongue.
Beyond this, whilst cultures struggle to overcome social stigma around the subject of mental health, Feeliom makes it a thing of the past by merging our wellbeing seamlessly with one's everyday communication. By placing emotions at the centre of how people stay in touch, this creates a sense of empathy amongst individuals, as well as between patients and healthcare professionals who may find linguistic barriers affecting their practice.
Many people, particularly from Asian backgrounds, prefer to take an informal care approach for their loved ones; especially when it comes to caring for dementia in the elderly. Whilst this is admirable, the effect it has on informal carers' mental health and wellbeing is shocking, with over 80% of carers admitting to feeling alone. Feeliom's solution does not focus on supporting individuals, its entire function is based on community. The network effect of communication at its core, provides a valuable resource for these people who are especially vulnerable and yet often entirely overlooked as they fight to protect their loved ones.
In 2009 the West Midlands had the highest proportion of children aged under 16 of the nine English regions, 19.4 per cent compared with an England average of 18.7 per cent. With 50% of mental health problems developed before the age of 18, and 75% before the age of 24, it is critical that when we talk about prevention we are creating something for children too.
Feeliom's sensory interface and free space for self-expression are ideal for children who are, by comparison, more open to new methods for communication. Much of Feeliom's advantages lie in its approach: It is meant to be both intuitive and fun. Mental health has never been viewed in such a light before and, when it comes to bringing children on board, Feeliom sets itself apart by putting interactive engagement at the heart of its solution.
Current and planned activity:
Feeliom is working with Imperial College London and University College London to carry out clinical trials of its mobile app.
We wish to undertake trials with West Midlands Trusts and would welcome a conversation with interested parties.
We are partnering with Trusts such as Surrey & Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust to define key targets and disseminate Feeliom, so far this will be done through 3 core channels:
1. Providing inpatients with a simple way to stay in touch with their loved ones & preventing mental health problems amongst the inpatient population
2. Providing nurses with a dashboard overview of the wellbeing of their inpatients
3. Providing NHS employees with Feeliom as a preventive tool for their mental health
We are continuously developing Feeliom's mobile app and interface for professionals further. And so with the help of NHS Trusts and learnings from different populations, we will work alongside our partner Trusts to tailor solutions to them and the people they support.
What is the intellectual property status of your innovation?:
Feeliom patented its unique Sensory Language in the UK in 2017.
Return on Investment (£ Value):
Very high
Return on Investment (Timescale):
0-6 mon
Ease of scalability:
Simple
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Bethan Bishop commented on FearFighter™ - an online programme for the treatment of generalized anxiety, panic and phobia 1 year 1 month ago
