Bergen New Bridge Medical Center is the latest New Jersey organization that has turned to behavioral health technology startup NeuroFlow to help improve mental health outcomes.

Founded in 2016, NeuroFlow aims to revolutionize the way mental health is understood and addressed. The Philadelphia-based company currently supports over 15 million users across its 150-plus partnerships with health systems, primary care groups, specialists and health plans.

Through its privacy law-compliant platform, NeuroFlow provides data-driven insights and actionable recommendations to providers and organizations so they can better measure, triage and manage at-risk individuals.

The technology works by combining patient data gathered through clinical assessments, trackers, journals and wearables with AI algorithms. It also flags rising-risk patients and connects them to acuity-specific resources in a timely way.

Additionally, NeuroFlow engages with patients by giving them personalized self-care activities and lets them log daily insights, such as sleep patterns and mood scores. In turn, that information can be used to measure patient progress and update risk levels.

“NeuroFlow’s platform identifies behavioral health risk that is often hidden in patient populations by combining diverse data points, from retrospective claims data to realtime patient reported outcomes,” a company spokesperson told NJBIZ. “The technology converts these data points into insights that allow care teams, program managers, health care organization leaders to make better decisions to optimize care delivery and utilization.”

Christopher Molaro and Adam Pardes launched NeuroFlow as a technology platform that integrates behavioral health care into primary care settings.

Molaro, a West Point graduate and former Army captain who served in Iraq, decided to focus on suicide prevention after one of his fellow soldiers died of suicide. After returning home, Molaro observed how veterans and civilians alike face barriers when it comes to receiving appropriate, timely care for mental health issues.

Following his transition out of the military, Molaro went for his MBA at Wharton, where he met Pardes, a bioengineering PhD candidate. The two agreed that even the most engaging digital mental health apps wouldn’t truly change the problem and that a solution that systematically integrated behavioral health into the full health care ecosystem was needed to effect meaningful change.

‘Holistic approach’

Bergen New Bridge, a clinical affiliate of Rutgers, is the largest hospital and licensed nursing home in New Jersey. It’s also the fourth largest publicly owned hospital in the U.S.

In September, the 1,070-bed not-for-profit hospital in Paramus announced it is teaming up with NeuroFlow to measure and manage patient population risk.

A safety net facility, the hospital provides a range of comprehensive services, including acute and ambulatory care, mental health and substance use disorder treatment, a 24/7 emergency department, surgical suites, physical rehabilitation, long-term care, laboratory, pharmacy and radiology. Bergen New Bridge also has satellite facilities in Bergenfield, Englewood and Paterson, as well as primary care facilities at select Inserra Supermarkets-owned stores in Bergen County.

By integrating NeuroFlow’s tools into its ambulatory care settings, Bergen New Bridge said clinical teams will be able to capture more patient screenings and data and enable proactive triage before symptoms escalate.

The technology will also connect patients to other resources when appropriate, such as community-based organizations that can help address social determinants of health, the hospital said.

Deborah Visconi, president and chief executive officer of Bergen New Bridge, said, “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.”

She told NJBIZ, “The NeuroFlow platform will have a substantial impact on the work we do at Bergen New Bridge by enhancing mental health support, integrating behavioral health into primary care, and improving patient outcomes by enabling a more holistic approach to patient treatment.”

“NeuroFlow will enhance our ability to provide integrated, data-informed mental health support that improves patient care, reduces costs and supports efficient workflows for our providers. This holistic approach aligns with modern health care trends, where physical and mental health are treated as interconnected aspects of patient wellness,” Visconi went on to say.

“Adopting the NeuroFlow platform furthers both our ability to provide integrative health services for our diverse communities, and Bergen New Bridge’s leadership role in community health and wellness,” she said.

See how NeuroFlow works:

NeuroFlow Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tom Zaubler said, “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.

“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,” said Zaubler, who joined the company in 2021 after chairing the psychiatry department at Atlantic Health System-owned Morristown Medical Center.

“We’re committed to delivering workflow tools designed to act as an extension of the clinical resources already in place, ultimately driving improved outcomes and financial sustainability within our clients’ organizations,” he added.

During his two decades with Atlantic Health, Zaubler helped expand and evolve care by establishing programs that integrated psychiatry and behavioral health into medical settings and oversaw the use of technology in psychiatric care settings.

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At NeuroFlow, Zaubler has an active role in research and clinical partnerships, as well as works to increase the scale of the company’s response service offerings. “For me, this is an incredible opportunity to continue impacting patients’ lives while getting health care organizations to start innovating with organizations like NeuroFlow as we focus on delivering better, more holistic care.”

According to a 2019 case study conducted at Jefferson Health in Pennsylvania, the platform enabled the health system to reduce visits to the emergency room by 34%. It also resulted in reported improvement in anxiety or depression symptoms by 82% of patients, the research found.

NeuroFlow has raised nearly $60 million through several rounds, including $7.5 million in Series A funding in 2019, $20 million in Series B funding in 2021 and $25 million in growth investment in 2022.

The company has said it’ll use the money to expand its network and platform, increase R&D investments, grow its workforce, and deepen relationships with providers and payors.

Streamlined solution

Locally, NeuroFlow’s partnerships also include Atlantic Health System and Prudential Group Insurance. It also works with Relievus, a pain management group based in Mount Laurel that has 18 locations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Headquartered in Morristown, Atlantic Health System is one of the leading nonprofit health care systems in New Jersey, serving more than 6.2 million people across 12 counties.

In 2023, the network announced plans to work with NeuroFlow on launching and facilitating a collaborative care model for behavioral health patients across 16 accountable care organization sites.

Atlantic Health said it selected NeuroFlow as a partner for “its ease of use and dual-purpose in serving both patients and clinicians, leveraging its technology to risk-stratify populations in real-time and alert care teams about high and risking-risk patients.”

“Given the rising demand for behavioral health services, we were looking for a solution that could streamline behavioral health screenings, provide customized patient education and coaching …,” said Dr. Jim Barr, Atlantic Health’s vice president of physician value-based programs and CMO of accountable care organizations.

“The NeuroFlow platform identifies and prioritizes behavioral health concerns in our populations, collects data to help us understand the whole person, and supports management with clinical decision insights and performance frameworks,” he said.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, nearly 1-in-5 people with chronic physical issues develop mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. Of individuals with severe mental health challenges, 37% also have long-term physical health conditions.

Prompted by these trends and its own experience with disability claimants, Prudential Group Insurance in Newark partnered with NeuroFlow in 2019 to better address both physical and mental wellness to help them return to work successfully.

By teaming up with NeuroFlow, Prudential has been able to support disability claimants through regular, remote clinical assessments and digital self-care resources tailored to individuals’ needs.

The platform also provides insight into claimant wellbeing and triggers timely alerts that inform Prudential case managers and NeuroFlow response services when wellbeing declines. As a result, rising- and high-risk disability claimants are able to be connected to the right resources, helping prevent crises before they happen.

According to a 2023 case study, the technology has enabled Prudential to discover that 19% of its physical disability claimants also had mental wellness needs. That led the company to revamp its disability claims management process to ensure claimants receive access to the appropriate mental wellness resources or additional support from Prudential case managers to help them return to work.

In the case study, Dr. Kristin Tugman, vice president of health and productivity analytics and consulting practice for Prudential Group Insurance, wrote, “The combination of alerts and outreach helps us ensure that disability claimants who are at-risk for self-harm are connected to the support that they need in a timely manner.”

“Rather than allowing crises to escalate, we have implemented the technology and workflows necessary to create a safety net, helping claimants access resources or therapy as risk indicators become apparent,” she said.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 9:48 a.m. EST Nov. 12, 2024, to clarify how the technology works. Additionally, the story was updated at 9:07 a.m. EST Nov. 15, 2024, to correct the total funding amount.