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Hastings, C. (2022). Wearable tracks mental state. Retrieved from: https://www.medgadget.com/2022/08/wearable-tracks-mental-states.html

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1. Fernando - Focus: Individuals strong in the focus strength take direction well and follow through on these directions. They are able to prioritize tasks, act based on this, and make the necessary corrections to stay on task. He will be an asset to the team.
2. Izzie - Input: Individuals strong in the input strength are strategic thinkers. They are very good at collecting and archiving information. She will be a very strong researcher for the team.
3. Rachel - Restorative: Individuals with the restorative strength are gifted in identifying problems and determining ways to resolve any identified issues. Having a natural problem solver on the team will make the team stronger.
4. Sheila - Strategic: Individuals with the strategic strength have a talent for spotting patterns and identifying issues. They have an ability to come up with alternatives for any identified barriers. this would be a valuable asset for the team.
5. William - Woo: Individuals who have the woo strength a gifted people persons. They are excellent conversationalists and are talented at making connections with people. This talent would be very valuable for making presentations and presenting information.

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My top 5 strengths are deliberative, intellection, belief, analytical, and input. Deliberative is my top strength. This strength will allow me to make careful, well thought out decisions. Individuals with the deliberative strength tend to anticipate obstacles and plan for overcoming them. This is a very valuable trait for an evaluation team.

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I believe there is certainly value in pursuing research of this nature. The ability to have a device that could allow a clinician to have objective data regarding a non-verbal patient's pain level, mood, etc. would be a game changer in the treatment of those individuals. Technology that can interpret mood would also be invaluable in the treatment of mental health issues as well. Having a device that could alert the wearer of shifts in their mood could potentially reduce hospitalizations and suicide attempts. My opinion, however, is this device will not deliver these breakthroughs. I believe this device ends up being more of a novelty than an actual diagnostic tool. It could have value combined with the wearable activity trackers currently available on the consumer market. I do believe there will come a day where there is readily available technology to allow for more objective date related to mood, pain, anxiety, etc., but I do not believe we have reached a point in our history where that tech is possible.

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The main con I see with this technology is reliability. There is no quantitative way to measure the accuracy in a patient who is non-verbal. If there is no quantifiable means to determine the accuracy of the device in a non-verbal patient, then the reliability of the device cannot be guaranteed. If there is no assurance of reliability, then the device cannot be used as an assessment tool. The device runs the risk of misinterpreting data in the non-verbal patient. If the misinterpreted data is used for diagnosis and treatment, patient harm could result.

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The device could open up new avenues of treatment with patients with communication issues such as non-verbal patients, autism spectrum disorders, and intellectual disabilities. The device could also aide in the treatment of mood disorders and anxiety by alerting the patient to subtle shifts in mood. This could allow for earlier interventions to possibly prevent mood de-stabilization and suicide attempts.

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Researchers from New York University have created a wearable device that measures electrodermal activity in much the same way as current fitness wearables track activity. Electrodermal activity is a property of the skin that is influenced be emotional states and is monitored by measuring skin conductance. The device is called the Multimodal Intelligent Noninvasive brain state Decoder for Wearable AdapTive closed-loop arcHitectures (MINDWATCH). An algorithm monitors the activity of sweat glands to detect changes in electrodermal activity and using this data to infer the wearers mental state. Researchers believe this will have application from monitoring pain in non-verbal people to protecting mental health. The device has been tested in human subjects, and researchers believe they can determine emotional states with a reasonable degree of accuracy within a few seconds. All information credited to Hastings (2022).

Reference
Hastings, C. (2022). Wearable tracks mental state. Retrieved from: https://www.medgadget.com/2022/08/wearable-tracks-mental-states.html

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Researchers at New York University have created a wearable system that can measure electrodermal activity, a property of the skin that is influenced by mental states, such as stress or excitement. The system is called Multimodal Intelligent Noninvasive brain state Decoder for Wearable AdapTive Closed-loop arcHitectures (MINDWATCH) and it can assess electrodermal activity by measuring skin conductance.

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August 19, 2022

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Dr. Conn Hastings
medgadget.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Researchers at New York University have created a wearable system that can measure electrodermal activity, a property of the skin that is influenced by mental states, such as stress or excitement. The system is called Multimodal Intelligent Noninvasive brain state Decoder for Wearable AdapTive Closed-loop arcHitectures (MINDWATCH) and it can assess electrodermal activity by measuring skin conductance.