Plastic Health
Analyzing Neuroplasticity to Monitor Emotional Stress and Prevent Burnout

Over the past decade, neuroscientists have made revolutionary discoveries that show at all ages the human brain is plastic or malleable, i.e., it is continuously shaped and reshaped based on what a person does and thinks. This characteristic of the brain and entire nervous system—otherwise known as neuroplasticity—plays a determining role in attentional control, cognitive inhibition and flexibility, and working memory. However, it has been observed that, through social and emotional development in childhood, due to emotional fatigue from academic pressure, in corporate setups, or in connection with social, mental, physiological dimensions of chronic illness, neuroplasticity can be negatively affected by a wide range of factors. The result? Emotional stress, anxiety disorder, job burnout, and complex monitoring of medical conditions. Notably, in today’s fast-paced world, the prevalence of job burnout is increasing, causing companies to spend more and more on their employees’ wellbeing, while social-emotional learning programs (SEL) are implemented to empower students, and new, digital, ways to track health and wellbeing are brought into mainstream. The question therefore arises: Is there a fail-proof way to help students, team members, patients check their emotional health on a regular basis?

Plastic Health—a blockchain startup co-founded by Celine Vignal—has developed a fitting answer to this by offering a complete digital solution called Plastic Health. Plastic Health is enabling preventive monitoring of neuroplasticity that can help anyone benchmark their perceived emotions and actual “plastic” effect, reveal multiple health risks, such as immune system degradation, ineffective therapy, and more at an individual level. Plastic Health focuses on the analysis of activity on the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) to measure digital biomarkers, identify patterns, and guide and implement secondary and tertiary preventive solutions before the condition becomes worse.

To this extent, based on the latest research in health and neuroscience Plastic Healthhas developed the world’s first biosensor game controller called “the Egg.” Working with dedicated mobile games, the Egg measures digital biomarkers of the ANS in real-time, and in a baselined way. Employees and employers can then exchange meaningful, tangible, objective data on the Plastic blockchain platform. This approach not only helps in monitoring and improving the physiological and mental wellbeing and cognitive performance of employees but also assists employers in reducing their healthcare costs.

We measure digital biomarkers of the ANS through biosensors and mobile games while also measuring the effects of lifestyle, work, and exercise on an individual’s physical and mental health in real-time

“Plastic Health enables individuals and companies to discover and share tangible and meaningful health indicators through an active and user-centric platform, in full compliance,” comments Celine.

Such revolutionary innovation implies that employees can play objective-based games developed by Plastic Health directly on their phones using the Egg and thus monitor and train, via breath-triggered neuromodulation, their emotional and physical wellbeing, when and where it matters. By measuring, comparing, and eventually sharing their ANS activity though Blockchain, users have full control of their data. In parallel, Plastic Health contributes to advancing medical and neurological knowledge, particularly in terms of predicting, understanding, and treating non-communicable diseases (NCD) like diabetes, depression, or heart diseases. Celine enthuses, “Our digital biomarkers bring together large datasets and reach out to very diverse populations, on a global scale.” Besides,by leveraging the collected data, Plastic Health allows pharmaceutical, research organizations to acquire valuable data in a decentralized, secure, and anonymous way.

Having worked onsuch ground-breaking technologies over the past few years, Plastic Health is now poised to launch its first line of games and devices in the second quarter of 2020. Celine adds that Plastic Health is also looking at addressing the middle- and low-income markets. Her company is planning to equip the underserved population with its device so that they can gather data on specific kinds of demographics. “It will help them receive improved and more personalized care before any health condition becomes perilous,” concludes Celine.