TelePsych Alliance Selects Kandy to Power Innovative Real Time Communications Enabled Suicide Prevention App

San Francisco and New York – September 2, 2015 – GENBAND , a leading developer of real time communications software solutions and 2015 CNBC Disruptor 50 , today announced that its Kandy communications platform has been selected by The TelePsych Alliance to help individuals at risk of depression and suicide via one of the first real time communications enabled suicide prevention apps, MindMe™ . TelePsych is a collaborative partnership between New York Presbyterian/Cornell Medical College, Burke Medical Research Institute and Interlecta Mobile Innovations. Kandy is powering The TelePsych Alliance’s MindMe platform and application, which makes it possible for individuals at risk of depression and suicide to access self-driven treatment or professional help 24/7.

The TelePsych solution, MindMe, leverages advanced psychotherapy approaches to break the cycle of suicidal thoughts and ideations in vulnerable individuals through an innovative self-guided approach that includes instant messaging, voice and video conversations with therapists.

The MindMe application, currently in clinical trials at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical College, leverages Kandy’s industry-leading WebRTC technology by extending the therapist-patient conversation beyond the monthly or weekly in-person visits often limited by healthcare plans, disability or distance. Kandy is GENBAND’s market-leading cloud communications platform that allows anyone from developers to large enterprises to Fortune 500 companies to embed contextual real time communications capabilities directly into business applications in minutes.

“Care for individuals at risk of suicide should be person-centered, where their personal fears, anxieties, needs, values and overall emotions become the foundation of developing a plan that integrates triggers, solutions, distractions and strategies on a daily basis,” said Dr. David Putrino co-developer of the platform and Assistant Professor, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and Director of TeleMedicine and Virtual Rehabilitation at Burke Medical Research Institute. “MindMe makes it easier for an individual to reach out to a therapist or counselor in real time, without resorting to standard telephone counseling, going to a website, or otherwise having to leave the experience they are in whether on a native mobile application or web application.”

“The information captured is secure and private, and makes it possible for the attending therapist or counselor to not only serve the individual patient, but learn from the aggregated, privatized data which approaches and treatments are most successful for the general population,” said Frank Fleming, co-founder of Interlecta. “This represents a major step forward for the behavioral health research and treatment world in addressing mental healthcare solutions across the established continuum, and rethinking the delivery and context of current geographical, institutional and technological treatment models. This is an innovative and unique use of WebRTC in an application to improve the emotional wellbeing of individuals in need.”

“The solution that the TelePsych Alliance created is truly inspiring,” said Paul Pluschkell, founder of Kandy and Executive Vice President of Strategy and Cloud Services at GENBAND. “Kandy is all about humanizing online experiences – so being a part of such a powerful solution that can help treat at risk-individuals by providing them with real time access to therapists is something that we are extremely proud of.”