Paramus, New Jersey-based Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, a 1,070-bed not-for-profit hospital, is partnering with NeuroFlow, a behavioral health technology and analytics company, to help gauge and oversee patient population risk.

The aim is to have the medical center integrate NeuroFlow's workflow tools into the medical center's ambulatory care settings to enhance the identification of behavioral health needs and more efficiently distribute care resources.

The alliance will initially focus on providing care team members with the ability to track and assess patient progress between appointments and improve resource allocation.

"We were looking for a way to identify and then prioritize behavioral health care needs in our patients, and this partnership with NeuroFlow will allow us to accomplish this by collecting essential data and helping to manage clinical decisions," Deborah Visconi, president and chief executive officer of Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, said in a statement.

"By addressing underlying, undiagnosed mental health conditions, we can better prevent crises. Operationally, we can enhance integration of all our healthcare resources, share data and information, and truly create customized care plans for everyone allowing us to treat the illness and care for the person."

Bergen New Bridge Medical Center's population is almost 70% Medicaid patients, making identifying risk patterns and underlying mental health conditions vital.

"We recognize that engaging vulnerable populations like those enrolled in Medicaid can be challenging, but it is imperative to address the complex and costly needs of this population," NeuroFlow chief medical officer Dr. Tom Zaubler said in a statement.

"That is why NeuroFlow leverages multiple access points – from SMS text to web, and in-clinic tablet flows – to lower the barriers to gathering critical data on patient behavioral health severity."

Zaubler added that the company is committed to delivering workflow tools designed to act as an extension of the clinical resources already in place.

THE LARGER TREND

In July, NeuroFlow announced a partnership with Intermountain Health to help identify behavioral health needs within the health system's primary care patients in Colorado.

In June, NeuroFlow announced it acquired behavioral digital health company Owl, a move that expanded its measurement-based offerings to help providers identify and manage behavioral care needs.

Last year, Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based healthcare provider Novant Health joined forces with NeuroFlow to supply extended mental health services to its patients and team members.

NeuroFlow also partnered with New Jersey-based Atlantic Health System to further a collaborative care model for adult behavioral health patients at 16 accountable care organization (ACO) sites.

Other companies offering behavioral health technology include Kipu Health, which acquired Hatch Compliance earlier this month to augment its suite of offerings by adding "robust governance, risk and compliance" abilities.

Last month, Talkspace announced it joined forces with the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA) as the player advocates organization's exclusive mental health technology partner.

Woebot Health, a company that makes an AI-powered mental health chatbot, announced it signed a three-year agreement with Ohio-based nonprofit pediatric healthcare system Aron Children's to provide pediatric mental health support to adolescents 13 to 17 years. 

Canary Speech, maker of AI-enabled speech analysis software, also announced that it partnered with the nonprofit organization Veteran Business Project to provide veteran entrepreneurs with tools to manage their mental health.