Health Tech
CES: Monitor brain with just a smartphone
A new brain health platform produces insights into mental, physical, and emotional health through simple digital interactions.
Neurocast, a Dutch medical device company, has launched a brain health platform to provide anyone with insights into their brain health, anytime, anywhere. The platform, being demonstrated at the CES expo in Las Vegas this week, can remotely track brain health in an unobtrusive way through technology like smartphones.
A Neurokeys keyboard analyses how a person uses their smartphone every day, producing insights into mental, physical, and emotional health through simple digital interactions, like texting a friend.
The data is collected unobtrusively and anonymously, with no tracking hardware needed, nor are log sheets filled out daily or weekly to track chronic neurological disorders. People living with chronic neurologic illnesses can instead go about their normal lives, while the Neurokeys app keeps track of how they’re doing, in the background.
Neurocast founders Levie Hofstee and Erwin Redeman, veterans in the tech industry, believe that much of the data that could tell us something about how we are doing – mentally, physically, or emotionally – is hidden in how we interact with technology.
“How we use our smartphones can reveal a lot about our brain health, and our app allows for providing this insight every single time that you type,” says Redeman. “Privacy and safety are guaranteed by design as our platform only analyses how you interact with your smartphone, not what you write.“
They say Neurokeys hold great promise for improving data collection and data quality while accelerating neuroscience clinical trial timelines. More than a dozen scientific publications have covered the platform, and it has won 10 international awards, including the EIT Health Neurotech prize.
Currently, Neurocast is working on expanding its approach to other common devices, such as laptops and tablets.
“It’s our mission to help people living with chronic neurological disorders be able to fulfill the full potential of their lives, by measuring their brain health remotely and completely unobtrusively,” says Hofstee.
