The Hol Picture

Our Insights on Real-World Evidence and Behavioral Health

Posts about:

behavioral health

Exciting government-supported collaboration will drive improved mental health in the U.K.

The HM Treasury in the United Kingdom recently announced an exciting and truly forward-looking initiative for healthcare: a package of government funding, called the Life Sci for Growth package, to fuel research and bring treatments to patients faster. There are many impressive projects being funded, from clinical trial improvements to preparation efforts for future public health emergencies. 

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Capitalizing on untapped value: Extracting environmental stressors from clinical notes via natural language processing

Consider an emergency room doctor who is caring for a patient who has been hospitalized after a suicide attempt. When she consults his chart, she can see that he has been diagnosed with depression, but the structured data that is immediately available does not provide much additional context. 

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an illustration of books and a paper record beside a plant and a pair of glasses

A look inside NeuroBlu: Structured socioenvironmental stressor data

Huge amounts of data are collected throughout a person’s journey through the behavioral healthcare system. From demographic data captured during intake to in-depth conversations between patients and clinicians about symptoms, daily activities, and goals, most of the information captured about a patient becomes part of their electronic health record (EHR). 

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Nature and nurture: How environment and biology shape mental health

As a mental health clinician and researcher, I have seen firsthand how our understanding of the role that biological and socioenvironmental factors play in mental health has evolved over time. For many years, the debate over nature vs. nurture dominated discussions in the field, but more recent models have focused on the interaction between genes and the environment, such as the diathesis stress model.

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The value of NeuroBlu Data: Reflections on our study in The Lancet Psychiatry

I recently led a team of researchers in a large-scale observational study, which was accepted and published by The Lancet Psychiatry. To our knowledge, our study was the first to study the impact of early clinical trajectory across multiple psychiatric diagnoses.

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Challenges in the collection and adoption of behavioral health real-world data

I recently had the pleasure of joining Real-World Wednesday, a conversation hosted weekly on Clubhouse covering various topics about real-world data. First off, I’d like to thank the hosts of the RWD-RWE Club, Matt Veatch and Aaron Kamauu, for the invitation and the engaging discussion.

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last puzzle piece fitting in

Our approach to curating fit-for-purpose real-world data

At Holmusk, our vision is to provide fit-for-purpose real-world data that fuel research and innovation in behavioral health. With tons of data captured each day as patients move through healthcare systems—much of it in unstructured data fields—a lot goes on behind the scenes, as we ensure that this information is available and usable for research. Below, you’ll find a quick overview on the types of data that are included in the NeuroBlu Database—as well as the process data go through to ensure they are fit-for-purpose.

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SAMHSA survey highlights importance of real-world data in behavioral health

Earlier this month,  the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released its annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which examined substance use and mental health data from 2021. Although the survey has been administered since 1971, SAMHSA called this year’s “the most comprehensive report on substance use and mental health indicators” that the organization has released to date.

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New year, same strengthened vision

Over seven years ago, I founded Holmusk with the vision that advances in technology and data science could be harnessed to improve health care. Over the company’s lifespan, the vision has crystallized, and we decided to focus first on an area of dire need—behavioral health. We have made great advancements in this space, many of which would not have been realized without the creation and nurturing of fruitful and supportive partnerships. 

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