It’s been a good month for Mission Viejo-based Mynd Analytics (Nasdaq: MYND), a data analytics firm whose products help doctors provide better and more personalized mental health services.
The nano-cap company’s stock increased more than 70% over the past month following a series of partnership announcements and a positive report on its technology in a peer-reviewed journal.
The increases have helped it rebound from some stock dips this year. Its market value is now about $12 million.
Among recent notable deals, the company announced a partnership with Employee Assistance Network Inc. in late August. The regional provider of employee-assistance program services is based in Asheville, N.C.
Under the agreement, Mynd subsidiary Arcadian Telepsychiatry Services LLC will provide telepsychiatry, teletherapy and curbside consultation services to Employee Assistance customers in Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia.
Telepsychiatry is the delivery of a psychiatric assessment and related care through telecommunications technology, in particular videoconferencing.
The partnership followed similar ones announced previously with VisionQuest, a national youth organization, and skilled nursing and assisted living operator Gulf Coast Health Care.
Mynd bought Arcadian in November.
Separately, Mynd announced the publication of an article this month in peer-reviewed journal Population Health Management that highlighted the positive economic impact on health plans and self-insured employers that use its proprietary Psychiatric EEG Evaluation Registry, or PEER.
The registry is designed to allow doctors to compare patients’ treatment outcome data based on results of electroencephalograms, which measure brain activity.
The article said recent findings found that measuring brain electrical activity through the noninvasive EEG can help predict a patient’s response to an antidepressant.
Mynd Chief Executive George Carpenter said in a statement that “by comparing the patient’s EEG to thousands of others in our database, the physician will be able to discern which medication an individual is likely to respond to, based on his/her unique neurophysiology.”
Depression is a high-cost ticket item. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that over 44 million Americans experience mental illness in their lives and that over 30 million Americans are prescribed psychotropic medication each year.
Mynd said it has nearly 40,000 outcomes for more than 11,000 unique patients in its PEER database, and that it continues to grow the registry.
Saratoga Buy
San Clemente-based CareTrust REIT Inc. (Nasdaq: CTRE), which owns senior housing and healthcare-related properties and leases them out to other operators, bought an 85-bed skilled nursing facility and 37-unit assisted-living campus in Saratoga in Santa Clara County.
The real estate investment trust, spun off from Ensign Group (Nasdaq: ENSG) in 2014, said this month that it’s paying about $19 million for the Villas at Saratoga about 20 miles west of San Jose.
The property, founded in 1949 by the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena and previously called Our Lady of Fatima Villa, was bought from Our Lady of Fatima Inc. Local news reports note that it’s believed to be the oldest continuously operating business in Saratoga.
The Catholic nonprofit signed an agreement in March to hand over day-to-day operations of the campus to locally-based Kalesta Health Care Group LLC, which remains the operator following the sale.
In connection with the acquisition, CareTrust “entered into a new tenant relationship with [Kalesta],” Chief Investment Officer Mark Lamb said in a statement.
Kalesta will pay about $3.4 million in annual rent at the outset of the 15-year lease, which has two five-year renewal options.
CareTrust now has 190 net-leased healthcare properties and three operated senior housing properties in 25 states in its portfolio.
It has a nearly $1.5 billion market cap.
Making a Poynt
Newport Beach-based Carepoynt LLC, a startup that created a health-focused, app-based rewards program that “puts consumers at the center of their own wellness experience,” has reported solid growth since launching its product a year ago.
Founded in 2015, it’s more than doubled its customer base of business partners and members. It now reports a member base topping 20,000, who’ve made more than 70,000 transactions.
Its Rewardsware for Healthcare platform gives users “poynts” for making good health choices, such as signing up for a gym membership. Poynts can be redeemed for services or cash.
Its mobile app is available on Apple and Android.
Carepoynt is in the middle of raising a $5 million Series A round after getting about $2 million in seed funding.
Proceeds from the $5 million round will go to support further development of its mobile app by adding new capabilities and program features, the company said.
Carepoynt partners include Fitbit, CVS Pharmacy, GNC, Amazon, Whole Foods Market, Nike, Target, Equinox, F45 Training and NutriShop.
