Real-Time Physiological Triggered Intervention

Real-Time Physiological Triggered Intervention

One of the core advantages mobile technology brings to the world of psychological and behavioral interventions is that is always available – unlike a therapist. The phone is constantly present, already ready, always collecting data. 

But no one needs – or wants – 24 hour a day therapeutic intervention! Life has to be lived, new insights integrated. 

Identifying JUST THE RIGHT MOMENT when someone needs support, a nudge in a new direction, to know they are being held is critical. We need therapeutic intervention when we NEED it, not on a predetermined scheduled or when our therapist happens to be available. 

And the kicker is we don’t always KNOW when we need it until it’s too late. With hindsight we may be able to see, “Oh! Had I done that mindfulness practice before that meeting it might have turned out differently.” 

What if your phone knew before you did? What if it knew you so well, recognized your patterns, knew how you typically move through your day that when something changed it could check in with you, find out how you are feeling and if necessary offer support to get you back to feeling strong and resilient? 

That’s the system we are building at ilumivu.

One of the key features of the system’s intelligence is that it can sense your physiological state and detect increases in stress or changes in mood before you may become consciously aware of them. This means it can help you re-direct earlier so you can use the tools and strategies your therapist has helped you learn when they are most effective, before you head into emotional dysregulation. 

How it Works

One way the ilumivu System knows when someone needs help is by monitoring their physiology with wearable devices. Changes in the autonomic nervous system and in movement patterns can be used to trigger a notification to a patient and send them questions and/or intervention content. 

The system detects a change in the individual’s own unique patterns; it’s not comparing each person to a group or some external metric. It learns what an individual’s normal range is and monitors for departures from that range.

For instance, when using the Garmin wearables one can monitor for various physiological metrics including Stress, HRV, HR, Steps, Calories burned, Pules Ox, etc. 

In this video, our co-founder Kat Houghton shows you how to set this up in the mEMA System so you can utilize this intelligence in your next study.