Healthy Mind raises €1M to help patients with anxiety

Healthy Mind, an EIT Health-supported French start-up, has raised €1M with business accelerator, Axeltim. Healthy Mind offers healthcare professionals a medical device to reduce presurgery anxiety and pain. It combines immersion through VR technology, medical hypnosis, and advanced psychology principles.

While more than 44 million operations are carried out each year in Europe, it is estimated that nearly 55% of patients undergoing surgery suffer from anxiety,[1] which can cause both psychological and physical symptoms. After surgery, if anxiety continues, it can lead to complications like depression and mental issues, and overall affect the patient’s post-surgery recovery.[2]

Healthy Mind was founded in 2017 by three engineers specialised in healthcare, Reda Khouadra, Timothée Cabanne and Malo Louvigné. Their solution aims to reduce presurgery anxiety through a combination of VR technology, hypnotherapy, and advanced psychology principles. It consists of a headset that the patient wears and a tablet to adapt the settings.

This solution has proven useful in reducing anxiety, nervousness, and pain of people undergoing surgery or in post-operation treatments, helping their recovery and easing pain. Clinical studies have shown that when applied before surgery this solution led to a 57%[3] reduction of anxiety, 80%[4] less of morphine used after the operation and 70%[5] less pain in palliative care. These results indicate that the solution could be used successfully by children, adults, and elderly patients.

“Joining Axeltim is a great opportunity for Healthy Mind which, thanks to the support of the accelerator, will now be able to continue to shine in the field of e-health and well-being at European and international levels. We are delighted to be able to contribute, on our own scale, to the transformation of medical care for patients thanks to a non-drug and attractive technology”, says Timothée Cabanne, CEO and co-founder of Healthy Mind.

Healthy Mind have been supported and accelerated towards this investment by EIT Health, participating in a variety of our programmes. In 2019, they were selected as one of 15 promising start-ups for the Bridgehead Programme, and in 2020, they took part in the EIT Health Catapult, reaching the semi-finals.

Anaïs Delicourt, Business Creation Lead of EIT Health France, says, “We had the opportunity to support Healthy Mind and its team since 2019 through the EIT Health Bridgehead programme, where they had the opportunity to target other European markets to develop their solution. We are pleased to see the development of Health Mind and the success of this fundraising round. We believe Healthy Mind’s software is a promising technology which could greatly optimise the care of people before, during and ahead of medical treatment.”

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