Digital Companion for Mental Health
German Depression App Moodpath Reaches 1 Million Users Worldwide
- Over 1 million people in 45 countries have downloaded Moodpath, the app for detecting and treating depression, since it launched at the end of 2016. More than 850.000 downloaded the app in 2018 alone.
- Moodpath was founded by Mark Goering and Felix Frauendorf. The CE-certified medical product was developed in collaboration with psychologists, doctors, and patients. Moodpath is now the leading depression app in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
- The company has raised a total of 2.7 million euros from renowned investors such as Holtzbrinck Ventures. The company plans to increase its international presence in 2019 and expand the features of the app.
Berlin, Germany (January 22, 2019) – It’s a global issue: According to the latest numbers by the World Health Organization, more than 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression each year, and every fourth person is affected by mental illness at least once in their life. Even more alarming, over 50 percent of those in real need of treatment are never even diagnosed. The resulting treatment gap is immense.
Felix Frauendorf and Mark Goering want to change this situation and founded Moodpath in spring 2016 to help reach a greater number of those who suffer. Six months later, Moodpath was launched, making it possible to identify early warning signs of depression, even before someone seeks help from a doctor.
With success: Moodpath is now available in 45 countries and has been downloaded more than 1 million times – 95 percent of the downloads being organic. Moodpath is the top-rated app for depression and mental health on both the App Store and Google Play in North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
Mobile Companion: Reinforcing Mental Health with Interactive Courses and Exercises
Moodpath uses scientifically developed screenings to detect and document depression. Jointly developed with psychologists, doctors, and patients, the app accompanies users with three daily blocks of questions related to emotional and physical well-being. Questions such as “Do you currently have significantly less energy?” or “Is your self-confidence clearly lower than usual?” are subsequently evaluated by an adaptive algorithm that then follows up with additional questions tailored to the responses of each individual user.
After the screening period, the app provides a scientifically validated assessment every two weeks with an eye to whether and to what extent symptoms of depression are present. The user can then choose to have the app generate a letter to a doctor, making the initial consultation easier for both the affected person and medical professionals. To date, Moodpath has generated more than 220.000 of these letters worldwide.
The screening takes place in real time via smartphone. Thus, the app avoids the problem known as “recall bias”: Patients report their emotions and thoughts to the mental health practitioner after they have occurred. With the distortions inherent to memory and perception, this can be problematic. The immediacy of Moodpath eliminates this tendency, producing more accurate results than is possible in an interview setting. Psychologist and co-founder Mark Goering explains: “If you didn’t sleep well twice, in retrospect many people will think that they had bad sleep for two weeks. When diagnosing mental illnesses, therapists always deal with the challenge of having to rely on the subjective snapshots of patients. We solve this problem with Moodpath.”
For many, the very process of tracking their moods helps identify problem areas. This is helpful not only for the mental health practitioner but for the individual interested in pursuing self-help strategies. Based largely in the approaches of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Moodpath includes courses with helpful exercises that support other treatment methods. They can be used any time the users desire to increase their emotional well-being and in tandem with psychotherapeutic treatment. Additionally, after a person ends therapy with a practitioner, the app can help counteract a possible relapse. Moodpath is one of the few apps to be CE-certified as a medical product.
What’s Coming in 2019: Further Technology Development and International Expansion to Support the Global Mental Healthcare Chain
Looking ahead, Moodpath aims to develop technology that digitally accompanies all parts of the mental health care chain and complements conversational therapy in the best possible fashion. To reach more people in 2019, Moodpath plans to further develop its offerings and expand into new regions such as Latin America, while further growing the existing markets in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. The company also plans to establish partnerships with stakeholders in the healthcare system, including clinic groups and insurances.
The Berlin-based start-up works together with a number of clinics and research companies such as the Dr. Becker clinics group, the Schön clinic, and the Charité Berlin, one of the biggest university hospitals in Europe. The idea: Moodpath should accompany and support mental health treatments in the best way possible, not replace it. Additional studies and projects with Columbia University in New York, Free University of Berlin, and the Max Planck Institute in Munich are in progress.
Dr. Leonhard Schilbach, Managing Director, Psychiatrist and Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute, comments: “I have been following the development of Moodpath for a long time and what I especially appreciate about it is the continuous scientific evaluation of the app. Moodpath is a very sophisticated e-mental health tool that has the potential to be very helpful, both in the general population and for specific target groups such as people on the autism spectrum. The data used for research can contribute to a better understanding of the different types of depression and who really benefits from which therapies. We are very excited about this collaboration!"
While in training as a psychologist, Mark Goering noticed that even severely depressed patients, otherwise strongly impaired, always have their smartphone at hand. He realized that this could be used in diagnostics. Felix Frauendorf, who had already helped to successfully build several start-ups in the past, also saw the potential of such an app. With a team that combines psychological, technological, and entrepreneurial expertise, they have garnered the support from such well-known investors as Holtzbrinck Ventures and Heartbeat Labs. So far, Moodpath has raised a total of 2.7 million euros in funding.
About Moodpath
The Moodpath app is the first product of Berlin-based, digital health start-up, Aurora Health. Aurora Health was founded by Felix Frauendorf and Mark Goering in 2016 and currently employs a team of 20 health and technology experts. The company’s goal is the development of digital technologies that fundamentally improve the detection and treatment of mental health issues for patients, doctors, psychologists, and other mental healthcare practitioners.
More info and pictures: https://mymoodpath.com/en/press/