Amissa, a startup backed by the Nationwide Institutes of Well being, launched on Wednesday to enhance menopause care with its AI-powered platform.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based firm is a recipient of the NIH’s Small Enterprise Innovation Analysis grant. Amissa makes use of information from a number of sources to generate insights that assist clinicians observe modifications in menopause signs over time and make extra knowledgeable care selections. It makes use of three primary pillars of knowledge, in keeping with Samantha Smith, co-founder and CEO of Amissa:
The Menopause Score Scale: a questionnaire that assesses the severity of widespread menopausal signs like sizzling flashes, sleep points and temper modifications. That is included in affected person onboarding and pre-appointment consumption.
Symptom monitoring: girls are requested to constantly self-track their signs.
Wearable information: Amissa has integrations with wearables just like the Apple Watch, Oura, Garmin and Whoop. This offers insights into sleep, fatigue and extra.
This info is aggregated right into a single, reviewable scientific report within the supplier’s EHR. It permits suppliers to know a affected person’s signs earlier than, throughout and between visits and make modifications to their care if wanted. For sufferers, it makes it simpler for them to trace and share signs and reduces the burden on them to recollect particulars throughout appointments.
The corporate’s companies are obligatory as a result of girls can enter perimenopause — the transition interval main as much as menopause — as early as their mid-30s, and there are dozens of signs that aren’t at all times apparent. Folks typically affiliate menopause with sizzling flashes, however these usually happen a lot later, Smith mentioned. As an alternative, early signs usually tend to embody anxiousness, temper swings or different “issues that you just may not even affiliate with a hormone change,” she said.
“You possibly can expertise signs for as much as 10 years by way of this entire journey. … In case you take a look at research that exist about EHRs, they don’t even have the fields accessible to trace these signs over time, and that’s obligatory to know precisely what’s happening with that affected person to have the ability to help. So actually, the answer, at any time when I’m pitching traders, it’s not very attractive, however its simplicity is what makes it so nice. It’s simply organizing information in a method that may allow clinicians to behave extra intelligently,” Smith declared.
The corporate is already working with 10 scientific practices throughout the U.S, together with Helia Well being. Suppliers pay a per-clinician charge for Amissa’s platform, in keeping with Smith.
“Menopause signs don’t transfer in a straight line,” mentioned Dr. Ariel Haddad, OB-GYN and founding father of Helia Well being, in an announcement. “Once I can see what’s enhancing, what’s worsening, and what’s staying the identical between visits, I can modify care with confidence and present sufferers that their expertise is being taken critically.”
Menopause and perimenopause are receiving rising consideration throughout the healthcare business, as extra corporations emerge and achieve traction within the house. This contains digital menopause suppliers Midi Well being, Evernow and Gennev. Nonetheless, Amissa is the “solely platform targeted on that connectivity piece for clinicians,” Smith claimed.
“We’re B2B. We’re not a wearable. We’re not a complement. We don’t present drugs, or we don’t present precise recommendation. So we’re actually taking part in in what I wish to name a protected house with regards to regulation, but additionally offering most worth for the information accessible,” she added.
In the end, the corporate goals to “redefine” menopausal care.
“My massive objective is to guarantee that we help clinicians in a method that not solely improves look after the ladies who’re in these conditions now, however for girls sooner or later like myself, hopefully creating a greater future, simply normally, the place we will change the tide round menopause,” Smith mentioned.
Photograph: Amissa
