MyndYou, which has developed a technology to assess cognitive degeneration in senior citizens, has partnered with the Japanese company Mizuho Information & Research Institute to test the company’s product for a potential nationwide rollout later in 2019.
Starting with five cities in Japan over the course of May, MyndYou’s technology will be deployed in homes around Japan to provide remote care and analyze for changes in cognitive function.
The company has a downloadable app that passively tracks movement and monitors conversations for any signs of diminishing brain function.
“What we market today is anomaly detection and this allows us to go into the market without detecting specific anomalies,” says Ruth Poliakine, the company’s chief executive and co-founder. “As we grow and progress we see this going into more specific conditions and early conditions… first we have senior adults getting service.”
MyndYou says it already has over ten occupational therapists that have incorporate use of the MyndYou app into treatment regimes for their patients. That means hundreds of patients are currently testing out MyndYou’s service, the company said.
Partnering with Mizuho opens MyndYou up to a market that is acutely aware of the need to develop services for an aging population.
Roughly one quarter of Japan’s working population will be 75 years-old by the year 2040, according to a recent report. And dementia is on the rise in the country.
“The number of dementia patients in Japan has reached 4.62 million and is expected to increase even further to seven million, which equals to one in five seniors over 65, in 2025. The disease has become an important problem not only for medical field but also for the whole of Japanese society. As in many cases, patients of dementia receive the diagnosis after the symptom has progressed, making a diagnosis and providing adequate care in the early stage is necessary,” said Hitoshi Morio, Joint General Manager, Innovation & Strategy Division, Mizuho Information & Research, in a statement.
The company charges between $10 and $50 for its service, depending on the use case and the number of patients that are using the technology.
News of the new partnership with Mizuho follows an extension of the company’s seed round, which included Amplifyher Ventures, Female Founders Fund and the angel investor, Howard L. Morgan. To date the company has raised $2.1 million.
“As a New York-based company with proprietary technology developed in Tel Aviv, we have partnered with MHIR to further the global potential for MyndYou,” said Poliakine, in a statement. “Now, the senior adult population in Japan will have access to a technology that can not only reduce readmission rates, but also prolong independence of senior adults, while providing them with personalized, data-driven remote care.”