Sonda Health | Devpost

Inspiration

Sonda was created in response to 3 main gaps that we noticed in mental healthcare. Firstly, the lack of nuanced emergency options or modalities pushes people to turn to certain hotlines such as 911 that may not always be well-equipped to handle mental and emotional crises. These experiences can leave people even more shaken, distressed, and reluctant to ask for help than before. Secondly, the lack of personalization across the mental health tech landscape today means that it is difficult for users to curate and indicate what content is most helpful for their individual needs. Thirdly, a lack of standardization in continuation of care means that a lot can happen or disrupt people's lives without access to practitioners between visits.

What it does

Sonda is a mobile and web app that acts as a two-pronged service that partners with clinicians to better manage, attend, and sustain continuation of care for their patients, while providing constant shared access to scientifically-backed and approved protocols for end users. This service targets patients who experience anxiety/panic attacks and undergo DBT with their clinicians.

On the patient side, users can:

Browse a curated library of anxiety/panic attack protocols and add ones they resonate with to their personal hub or list of protocols
Designate a protocol as their go-to emergency plan
Receive recommendations for protocols based on input from their connected clinician and indicated interests
Access and read protocols at any time
Enter a guided session designed for moments of anxiety/panic attacks in which the clinician or the system (and in the future, hotlines) will be able to walk through protocols with the user and push content in real-time over the phone/speakers
View and edit their profile information

On the clinician side, providers will be able to:

View patient information for those who have integrated with Sonda
Track high-level insights and activity for patients on Sonda
Contribute protocols to Sonda and manage their own recommendations in the protocol hub
Share suggested protocols with other clinicians in the Sonda network
Intake requests for and enter into guided sessions from patients

How we built it

Due to the lack of a coder for this particular event, our creative clickable prototype was built in Sketch and Invision. After group sessions of whiteboarding, we moved to wireframing and eventually applied our proposed brand which evokes a sense of cleanness, security, and growth.

A MERN tech stack would have supported the web app, while React Native would have supported the mobile side. Swift/Java would have been other considerations, particularly as we look to the future for Apple Watch integrations.

Challenges we ran into

Our main challenge in brainstorming was fleshing out a viable business model and revenue stream. First and foremost, we wanted to put the patient first and provide affordable mental health care without hiding features behind premium fees. Earlier iterations of the concept focused solely on the patient involved ideas like partnerships and sponsored events to generate cash flow.

Eventually, as we shifted to the dual approach that also partnered closely with the clinician, we developed a subscription model requesting a 2% fee from satisfied clinicians with more than 5 users. There is also an inherent incentive for clinicians to use Sonda's model as it would create greater access to care between visits, particularly if the service is extended to hotlines, and reduce costs for providers.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We feel proud that we were able to flesh out an cohesive experience that actual psychiatrist mentors responded well to, in terms of how much this kind of tool would help them in their day-to-day lives. Our concept successfully places the patient first and provides a sense of guidance and shelter in moments of extreme stress, but also improves the lives of the clinicians without painful cost to either party. Our creative prototype also successfully illustrates the simplicity of the end experience, which is key for such moments.

What we learned

Mentors who reviewed our concept taught us about liability considerations. As a group, we had broad ideas about all the ways to connect users to other parties, but we learned to hone in our focus on more specific use cases and circumstances to make the experience more meaningful. By requiring an existing relationship with a clinician, we ensure that the content within Sonda is approved and also secure the financial side of our business model.

What's next for Sonda

We feel that Sonda could be expanded to increase automation and access through multiple device touchpoints in the future. In the near future, Sonda may be activated via voice command from smart speakers and AI assistants such as Siri. Farther out in the roadmap, it would be ideal to assist in establishing baselines with wearables such as Apple Watch and Air Pods, which continue to flesh out their biometric data capabilities. If Sonda could accurately detect anxiety/panic attacks and notice trends in the future, it could automatically trigger the protocol flow or notify clinicians. Hearables in particular would open up more opportunity in auditory protocols and accessibility.

Additionally, we would want to do some initial prospective user research to gauge interest and preliminary insights, as well as flesh out the technical aspects with developers.