Medibio (ASX:MEB) says it has been awarded a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office for its 'Method and System for Assessing Mental State'.
The company said the patent relates to a computer-implemented method of assessing the mental state of a subject by receiving a sequence of heartbeat data samples obtained overnight through three distinct periods - a pre-sleep, sleep, and a post-sleep period.
It said the patent is timely given it is currently undertaking trials to validate its medical software (MEB-001) that will identify depressive burden in patients suffering from sleep disturbance.
MEB-001 consists of sleep staging algorithms (MEBsleep), overlayed by overnight heart rate and heart-rate-variability algorithms, leading to the depressive burden analysis.
The company said misdiagnosis due to subjective methodology is a significant barrier to effective care for patients suffering from depression. This has consequences for an individual’s emotional and psychological welfare and imposes significant costs on government health budgets.