Japan-based franchiser and operator of holistic health services MEDIROM Healthcare Technologies Inc. is pleased to announce that they recently signed a comprehensive business partnership agreement with Social Services Inc. to produce digital therapeutics (DTx) for postpartum depression. The Mother Bracelet—a wearable health-tracking bracelet invented by the Company—will be implemented in the collaborative program along with Social Service.
It’s no doubt that postpartum depression is one of the challenges new mothers experience after giving birth. It’s often undetectable and can go on for months untreated. In fact, depression diagnosis and screening are often made by a physician based on a physical test. Nonetheless, it’s still challenging for most new mothers to visit a health clinic.
It’s estimated that there will be 810,000 births in 2021, and a substantial number of depression conditions are likely to be undertreated and underdiagnosed. Now, it can be evaluated using the Mother Bracelet. Equipped with the personalized score, the project aims to build a supplementary diagnostic system for the early detection of postpartum depression.
The Company strives to get rid of the isolation through the system and establish a more parenting-friendly society where PPD-related incidents that were previously noticed only after serious incidents will be efficiently avoided.
The development of Social Service’s DTx will involve two processes. During the first step, the Mother Bracelet will collect health information such as body temperature, heart rate, calories burned, quality of sleep, and steps. It will be sent to Social Service along with the user’s consent.
On top of that, Social Service will determine the depression state of a user based on the collected health information. The Company will also categorize and distinguish personality features through the qualitative score to assess data and offer more accurate and advanced PPD diagnosis. They will also consider that mental and physical stress aren’t interchangeable and personality difference impact stress response.
A therapeutic intervention program will be presented in the second step.
The Mother Bracelet is considered the very first self-powered activity tracker that doesn’t need recharging. Driven by advanced technology made in collaboration with a tech company in Silicon Valley. It produces electricity from the temperature difference between ambient air and the body. Furthermore, it removes the data loss that happens unavoidably while a device is being taken off. It can record five basic health data types calories burned, body temperature, heart rate, steps, and quality of sleep.
The biggest benefit of the Mother Bracelet is uninterrupted and continuous 24/7 health monitoring, with being nearly unnoticeably self-charging and lightweight.
MEDIROM is the leading holistic healthcare company in Japan and operates 312 therapeutic massage studios nationwide. In 2015, the firm entered the health tech business and launched new healthcare programs using an on-demand training app referred to as Lav.
In 2020, the company launched the Mother Bracelet, the globe’s first activity tracker that doesn’t need recharging. The tracker’s massive popularity raised a record-breaking 56.1-million-yen support from the crowdfunding platform Makuake.
MEDIROM hopes that its varied health-related products and services offering will help it gather and organize healthcare data from customers and users and allow it to become the leader in big data within the healthcare sector.
Social Service strives to create media that changes lives. They regularly publish content targeting senior and middle-aged adults, pregnant women, and new mothers, as well as elementary school students. The organization also offered numerous editorial services for With You Plus and With You, the certified information magazines of the Nichi-Mom Ogya Donation Foundation.
They also contributed to community support events like visits to Special Child Care Centers for awareness raising and media services about the concerns on caregiving for kids with disabilities.
