CASE STUDY

STOP

STOP (Successful Treatment Of Paranoia) is a patient-facing app that aims to reduce clinical symptoms of paranoia, in patients with mild to moderate paranoia. It is a self-administered 12-week programme using Cognitive Bias Modification for Interpretation therapy (CBM-I). Avegen in collaboration with King’s College London designed and set up STOP, the smartphone version of the therapy.

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Problem

Paranoia is associated with a range of mental health issues, including psychosis, which is one of the most disabling mental health conditions, associated with distress and challenges in work, family and social functioning. Cognitive Behavioural Modification can be an effective mode of therapy as it changes the underlying biases of negatively interpreting the situation to instead acquiring biases that promote well-being. Only recently has CBM mode of therapy started to transition into online (web and app) mode.

STOP (Successful Treatment Of Paranoia) app builds on a promising feasibility study of new targeted intervention data. The feasibility testing was conducted by King’s College London and McPIN organisation and demonstrated significant belief change and showcased less distress in ambiguous social situations and reduced symptoms.

Unfortunately, existing treatments are not widely accessible and can be ineffective for some individuals. STOP aims to provide greater accessibility and convenient use. The STOP app aims to transform desktop therapy into a more engaging and accessible smartphone application for a wider range of people. It can be self-administered, making it convenient for the users to use the application when and wherever they want.

Approach

Avegen in collaboration with King’s College London designed and set up STOP the smartphone version of the therapy. Our multi-disciplanary team comprises researchers, engineers, designers, data analytics and more. Avegen’s deployment team coordinated with our client to build, test and iterate STOP using HealthMachine™, our cloud-based, product development platform.

Avegen’s team coordinated with different stakeholders to better understand the patient journey and technical requirements and created STOP after multiple feedback and iteration cycles, to ensure maximum impact for patients.

Solution

STOP is built on our proprietary product development platform HealthMachine™ and is a prescription digital therapeutic intended to be used for 12 weeks by individuals with clinically mild to moderate symptoms of paranoia. It can be self-administered and purposefully focuses on contributing factors, it is hoped that this intervention could provide an effective treatment.

If efficacious STOP will have a number of potential benefits like minimal effort to complete, no homework, no therapist, and improved accessibility.

From a clinician perspective, if the randomised control trial with STOP proves efficacious, clinicians will be able to take informed decisions and provide better care. Increased adherence to the therapy due to easy access will enable providing better patient outcomes.

STOP is regulatory compliant, follows an agile approach throughout the set-up phase, will provide access to data and relevant insights. The seamless integration of the participant’s device with the research interface enables active status tracking. Provision of alerts and notifications on the research interface will empower the clinicians. The data generated will be analysed by the statisticians to evaluate the effectiveness of the product.
Also, STOP being a digital therapeutic (regulated product), it needed to meet all the applicable standards of safety, quality and efficacy and demands extensive documentation to get MHRA approval.

Impact

As STOP is a part of a study, real impact will be known when the study is over. Possible benefits will include reduction in symptoms of paranoia, and improved resilience to stress and anxiety.

Key takeaway

Avegen, with its highly configurable proprietary product management platform ‘HealthMachine’, is the ideal partner for any research institute. The platform is versatile, delivers products rapidly, has the capability to include complicated features like randomisation, and counterbalancing, allows monitoring by researchers, provides relevant insights and most importantly is GDPR compliant.

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