Challenge

Overlap and the US Department of Veteran Affairs’ National Center for PTSD (NCPTSD) applied to the Mood Challenge – a competition sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Apple.

Overlap and NCPTSD pitched an app called Aware. Aware’s goal? To use mobile health to assess novel techniques for collecting mood data against traditional methods, e.g. the arduous PCL-5 survey. More importantly, could an app used to do research also blend in dynamic clinical interventions?

Solution

Overlap’s apps were customized for Aware and made available on iOS and Android, in English and in Spanish. The apps included over 120 different cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) based skills designed by the NCPTSD. The Aware researchers were also able to see the progress of their entire cohort using the population analytics feature of our clinician dashboard.

Results

Even though Aware did not win the Mood Challenge (we were a finalist), the NCPTSD’s commitment to using mobile health to improve both research and care continue. Aware launched in June 2018 and has thousands of downloads. Aware was also featured on the famous podcast, This Past Weekend.

To join, just go to awarestudy.org

The National Center PTSD develops mobile interventions for Veterans and their families. We needed to find a talented, dedicated, and trustworthy technical partner. We partnered with Overlap for the past several years to design a beautiful and novel research app for mood and PTSD symptoms (the Aware Study). I highly recommend Overlap Health.

Beth Jaworski, PhD

US Department of Veteran Affairs' National Center for PTSD