10043505Objective monitoring of mental health via deep digital phenotyping and machine learning– viability study with athletesClosedGrant for R&DInnovate UKProrizon is a digital health tech company developing software and applications to support the health and performance of young people in high-pressure, high-performance environments (i.e. those in sports, education, and the creative sector). This project initially focuses on a particular group: highly-trained athletes, many of whom suffer from long-term anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. This mismatch between body and mind underlies some of the health issues experienced by many young people in this tech-driven, post-COVID world. Currently, diagnoses of mental ill-health almost exclusively rely on self-reporting measures such as interviews and questionnaires, undertaken when children and young adults have reached crisis point and words fail them to express their feelings clearly. No other health condition relies predominantly on self-reporting to define the illness and determine the intervention. The health of the current young population is being unnecessarily compromised. To function well, our mind and our body need to work together. The ability for them to do so is driven by chemicals in our bodies called hormones. These hormones provide the communication needed for our brain and our body to work in harmony. If either is damaged or compromised, the profile of the hormones changes and our health over time deteriorates, resulting in long-term ill-health and reduced quality of life. Prorizon overcomes this challenge by developing the technology that allows impartial, accurate biological monitoring of and therefore early preventative interventions for, mental and physical health together. It achieves this by screening our physical, mood, and hormone profiles and visualising our well-being, thereby allowing effective preventative interventions or relevant, personalised treatments to be prescribed. This Fast Start Grant enables Prorizon to launch a minimal viable product for young athletes. Enabling data collection and analyses. The work carried out in this project, with this grant, is key to developing the dataset needed, to provide evidence for reliable associations between physical and mental wellbeing. This will also enable the determination of the next steps in product development, which will allow Prorizon to prove product-market-fit, gain further funding and grow the product to the wider market. With Prorizon's technology, young people will be able to gain a deep understanding of their mental and physical well-being, monitoring changes and progress made and supporting their agency for future health development. For organisations and healthcare professionals, it will provide progressive, specific, and effective guidance for targeted support and individualised interventions at the time of need.