Amae Health is launching a new partnership with Google Health Enterprise to integrate wearable technology into its serious mental illness treatment programs. The behavioral health provider is now equipping patients with Fitbit devices to monitor key health metrics. Clinicians will track data including sleep patterns, exercise, and heart rate variability to better understand patient health outside of clinical sessions. This integration represents a shift toward precision psychiatry by providing care teams with objective data that was previously unavailable in the field.
The initiative aims to move beyond anecdotal reporting. By collecting longitudinal data from wearables alongside lab results, medication history, and voice data, Amae intends to create a composite mental health score. This score will assist clinicians in measuring disease progression and identifying early warning signs of clinical decline. The goal is to catch changes in patient status before they require emergency intervention.
Scott Fears, chief medical officer at Amae Health, notes that psychiatry has long lacked the objective measurement tools common in other medical specialties. The move to use machine learning to aggregate small, individual biomarkers into a clearer picture of health is a significant departure from traditional methods. Amae is also committed to academic transparency, intending to publish research findings to ensure its models remain grounded in evidence.
Currently operating in New York, North Carolina, and California, Amae partners with major systems like Cedars-Sinai and Mass General Brigham. By serving as the outpatient arm for these hospitals, the company works to manage patients across different recovery phases. These clinical collaborations, combined with value-based payment arrangements, demonstrate a focus on long-term outcomes and reducing hospital readmissions for patients with complex conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.