A Beautiful (Os)mind
By Justin Kao, Barry Schuler, Jocelyn Kinsey, Delaney Ugelstad
Healthcare is undergoing an information revolution, with high-quality data becoming the foundation of understanding and treating any disease. For example, starting twenty years ago, a wave of biomarker, treatment, and outcomes data transformed cancer care. Today, cancer patients benefit from personalized treatment regimes, including cell therapies that are literally engineered for an individual patient using their body’s own immune cells. Recognizing that other areas of medicine will be similarly impacted, the FDA has actively encouraged the use of high-quality healthcare data, known as real-world evidence (RWE), to speed drug development and approvals.
Given these trends, we look to partner with companies that generate high-quality, proprietary datasets by working directly with patients and providers to capture individualized cases and treatments and deliver better outcomes. This approach to precision medicine and RWE led to our investment in Helix, a leader in population genomics. Similarly, we believe the field of neuroscience and deeper data discovery about the brain is the next frontier for RWE.
In that vein, today we are excited to announce our investment in Osmind, the emerging leader in RWE for neuropsychiatry. DFJ Growth is leading Osmind’s $40 million Series B financing and joining the company’s board.
Osmind’s rich dataset is the natural outgrowth of its core offering — an industry-leading software suite for its network of interventional psychiatrists. Osmind’s product includes a specialty-specific electronic health record (EHR) and patient-facing app that is already being used by hundreds of clinicians and tens of thousands of patients. Prior to Osmind, providers relied on antiquated software that was not customized for their workflows, often keeping track of specific treatments using an Excel spreadsheet (or even pen and paper!). Osmind’s tight-knit community of customers rave about its patient-facing interface, which enables patients to journal, communicate with their provider, and respond to validated surveys, with results flowing directly into the Osmind EHR.
As clinicians and patients use Osmind’s product, the company creates a unique dataset that maps how each patient responds to various treatments. For patients with serious mental illness, such as treatment-resistant depression (TRD), PTSD, and bipolar disease, high-quality data has been scarce because these patients tend to move in and out of care. Traditional provider-facing software fails to capture the right type of data to support development of new therapies.
In contrast, Osmind’s software is designed with RWE in mind. Its dataset contains detailed treatment data and longitudinal outcomes, enabled by their direct contact with the patient, without the need for expensive manual curation.
In only two years, Osmind has already created the world’s largest dataset of TRD patients who have been treated with ketamine. Using this dataset, the company recently collaborated with researchers at Stanford University to publish a groundbreaking study on real-world ketamine outcomes. This study helped establish Osmind as the RWE leader in this field. With biopharma companies investing heavily in new therapies, including ketamine and psychedelic medicines, Osmind will be a critical partner to help drug developers safely and quickly bring new therapeutics to market.
The co-founders at Osmind, Lucia Huang and Jimmy Qian, are exactly the kind of founders we love to back. They are visionary, mission-driven, and laser focused on revolutionizing neuropsychiatric care. Together, they bring experience in business, biotech, medicine, and data science and have attracted an exceptional team around them. Their drive to bring better care to patients, both through their software and through the therapies they will help bring to the bedside, shines through in every action they take.
We are incredibly excited to partner with Lucia, Jimmy, and the Osmind team as they bring mental health into the digital age. Twenty years from now, we hope patients with serious mental illness will be treated with personalized therapies based on RWE. That is the future envisioned by Osmind, and we’re excited to stand by their side for this important mission!
