Award-Winning Precision Medicine Executives Launch New AI Technology Platform Bennufit™ Health to Solve Dueling Public Health Crises of Chronic Pain and Opioid Abuse

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Oct. 30, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Bennufit™ operates an AI platform that assesses behavioral, lifestyle, environmental, demographic, genetic, wearable and medical device, as well as laboratory data to deliver clear and actionable information to health care practitioners, patients, health systems, payers, and researchers with the vision to better understand, more objectively assess and effectively reduce pain, as well as identify those at risk for developing opioid use disorder (OUD) and treat or minimize its effects. Currently, there are three applications of the Bennufit™ technology platform:

•     Bennufit™ PrecisionRx - a SaaS software licensed by laboratories to deliver precision medicine reports through unique genetic tests to predict risk for OUD, objectively assess pain and predict risk to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications;
•     Bennufit™ Smart Shirts from Hexoskin - a wearable smart shirt from Hexoskin to assess an individual's vital signs to better understand and evaluate a multitude of pain conditions, as well as intercept symptoms of potential opioid overdosing before an overdose occurs;
•     Bennufit™ Rehab Connect – a remote patient monitoring and at-home rehabilitation software for chronic pain and post-surgical patients from Flint Rehab to help monitor patients' recovery and rehabilitation from surgery or injury.

Bennufit™ has been incubated by social entrepreneurship fund, Profound Ventures, of Newport Beach, California. Laura Hunter, Esq., a Founding Partner of Profound Ventures, explains "With chronic pain as the world's most prevalent and expensive health condition, and opioid abuse being the nation's largest cause of preventable death, Profound Ventures is committed to funding and supporting new technologies that solve profound societal problems. Bennufit™ is one of the socially-responsible companies we support. Profound has invested over $250,000 in Bennufit™ so far."

Earlier in 2019, Bennufit™ co-founder and Managing Partner at Profound Ventures, Brian Meshkin was invited to be a keynote speaker at the Canadian Consensus Conference on Biomarkers in Pain Research held at McMaster University which brought together leading pain researchers across North America. As a commercial and research leader in the field, Meshkin outlined a platform where markers such as behavioral, lifestyle, environmental and demographic assessments, as well as digital biomarkers, data from medical devices, imaging assessments, laboratory measures, and social determinants of health (SDOH) could help improve pain research. Meshkin explains, "Building on previously developed, award-winning publicly-disclosed work in pain genetics, clinical biobanks, and data analysis over the past decade, Bennufit™ has now built a superior AI technology platform analyzing extensive and varied data sources to deliver on the promise of precision pain medicine and offer cutting-edge software to improve the lives of patients."

Bennufit™ Health is collaborating with key opinion leaders and policy makers involved in helping solve the opioid abuse crisis, including Dr. J. Ramsay Farah, a certified Physician Executive and Medical Review Officer, Regional Medical Director for United Healthcare Clinical Services in the Northeast and Chief Medical Officer of Phoenix Health treatment center in Maryland. Dr. Farah explains "Having used similar but less advanced technology to help patients in the past and having done extensive research in this field on the validity and accuracy of these technologies, I know how a more precise and practical approach to treatment can save lives. The technology is appreciated by patients and the information provided can help understand why certain medications may not work, may create adverse effects or may offer better symptom relief."

Bennufit™ Health co-founder, Profound Ventures Founding Partner, and leading personalized medicine expert, Dr. Felix Frueh, who is the former Associate Director of Genomics at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration explains, "Bennufit™ offers a technology platform designed to be 'win-win' – helping everyone involved in the care of patients with pain. Importantly, through our analytics platform, we plan to deliver various applications that will help improve our understanding of the pain landscape involving a vast number of health conditions, as current approaches are clearly failing. We look forward to collaborating with the FDA, payers, health systems and others on helping solve these dueling public health crises."

SOURCE Bennufit