The Journal of mHealth Vol 2 Issue 1 (February 2015) | Page 13

Industry News ‘Stress Free’ will help you achieve your goals.” The ‘Stress Free’ app is the latest initiative from the PCA to put in place measures to help reduce stress-related illnesses. “Stress Free is part of our toolkit and picks up the excellent proactive and preventative work being done by the team of Personal Development Managers and resilience sessions with counties across the country run by our partner LPP,” said Jason Ratcliffe, Assistant Chief Executive of the PCA. “It is an extension of the ‘Mind Matters’ tutorial which we launched three years ago and which has had valuable input from [Professional Cricketers] Tim Ambrose, Marcus Trescothick, Darren Cousins, Graeme Fowler, Andrew Flintoff and Steve Harmison.” “We know that one in four of us will be affected by a mental health episode in any year and ‘Stress Free’ is another tool which we hope will help people to cope with anxiety issues in a very private and personal environment.” The app has been developed by Virtually Free, a digital health company who produce evidence-based technologies aimed at providing effective, engaging and lowcost access to psychological therapies. The company, which is a collaboration between experienced psychiatrists and games developers, uses games and game dynamics to deliver these solutions and provide technologies to a variety of markets, including consumer, enterprise and sport. Dr Russell Green, Consultant Psychiatrist and co-founder of Virtually Free commented: “These simple but effective treatments are well founded in clinical medical practice and we are providing versions of ‘Stress Free’ to major organisations that wish to take a proactive approach towards managing stress related issues within their populations. We hope that by making the treatments available through accessible technology we can help players of elite sport and others alleviate some of the pressures they face.” Virtually Free’s work has received significant recognition over the course of the past year. In this time the company has won the Digital Enterprise Awards (DEA), Cambridge University Technology and Enterprise Club (CUTEC) and Cambridge Venture Project. They have also been award finalists at the Pitch@ Palace by HRH The Duke of York, The Appsters Awards, Tech London Advocates: Healthtech Competition, Slush London at Google Campus, Future Decoded by Microsoft and the TIGA Awards, The Venture by Chivas and UK's Best SME Mobile Health-App 2015. The company have considerable experience of designing therapeutic apps to help people overcome different phobias. They have already successfully developed an app called Phobia Free which treats arachnophobia using exposure therapy and augmented reality to help users overcome this fear, and are currently running a clinical trial, with the University of Roehampton, as part of the development process of their latest app for Agoraphobia. The company is currently seeking participants for this trial and anyone interested in finding out more may contact [email protected] to receive additional information. n Novartis and Qualcomm Launch a $100m Investment Venture to Fund Digital Technologies Novartis Pharmaceuticals has announced the creation of a joint investment company with Qualcomm Ventures to target early stage companies who offer technologies, products or services that "go beyond the pill" to benefit physicians and patients. "By working with Qualcomm Ventures, Novartis sees the opportunity to take a greater leadership role in introducing new mobile or digital technologies that have the potential to change the practice of medicine and bring more breakthroughs with real benefits to patients and society," said David Epstein, Division Head of Novartis Pharmaceuticals. "We are excited by the potential of digital medicines to further enhance our mission of the right drug for the right patient at the right time helping people live longer with a better quality of life giving more time to do the things tha B