Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Headspace Targets Digital Medicine Market
Santa Monica-based Headspace, which develops mindfulness and meditation apps, says it is targeting the medical market with the launch of a new, digital medicine subsidiary it calls "Headspace Health". According to Headspace, the new subsidiary will look to incorporate its meditation apps into digital medicine, with plans to deliver a prescription meditation app in 2020. The company said the app will be its first product in a portfolio of "newly developed, clinically-validated and FDA-cleared meditation programs". The company says it will begin Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) this summer. Headspace says its apps have been used in more than 65 evidence-based research studies, run by U.K.'s National Health Service (NHS), Kaiser Permanente, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Harvard University, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon, University of California San Francisco, and University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, and others. Headspace is venture backed by Spectrum Equity, The Chernin Group, Advancit Capital, Allen & Co., Breyer Capital, Broadway Video Ventures, Deerfield Management, Freelands Ventures, and William Morris Endeavor, along with such celebrities as Jessica Alba, Cash Warren, Jared Leto, and Ryan Seacrest.