SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Headspace, a global leader in mindfulness and meditation, today announced the formation of Headspace Health, a new, wholly-owned subsidiary that will pioneer new ways to incorporate the Headspace meditation experience into digital medicine. The new company plans to deliver the world’s first prescription meditation app in 2020 when it anticipates the introduction of the first product in its portfolio of newly developed, clinically-validated and FDA-cleared meditation programs specifically designed to treat a broad range of chronic diseases.
“The creation of Headspace Health is the most significant step ever taken to introduce meditation into medicine at scale,” said Headspace Co-Founder and CEO, Rich Pierson. “Health professionals have long recommended Headspace as an effective tool in treating a wide variety of health problems, and now we’re leading the effort to validate and deliver prescription meditation solutions to doctors and their patients for physical conditions. By standardizing meditation into health care, we’re bringing Headspace even closer to realizing our mission of improving health and happiness around the world.”
In summer 2018, Headspace Health is scheduled to begin Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) on its first targeted disease state, to be announced in the coming months. The completion of clinical trials and subsequent FDA submission are scheduled for 2020, with the goal of making Headspace Health’s initial prescription meditation program available to doctors as an important tool in improving patient health outcomes and quality of life.
Since 2015, Headspace has completed or is currently conducting more than 65 evidence-based research studies on the favorable health implications of the Headspace meditation platform on clinical conditions such as asthma and cancer, as well as future exploration in areas such as sleep and pain management. Results to-date remain overwhelmingly positive as to the material benefits of meditation on health and happiness across both physical and mental conditions. Under the direction of Headspace Chief Science Officer Dr. Megan Jones-Bell, these studies have been primarily conducted in collaboration with third party partners, such as the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS), Kaiser Permanente, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Harvard University, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon, University of California San Francisco, and University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, among other prestigious academic and research institutions.
“Since its inception, Headspace has maintained an in-house science team, reinforcing our company’s long-standing commitment to academic research and collaboration with clinicians,” said Dr. Jones Bell. “Over the last few years, we’ve increasingly directed time and resources toward expanding our scientific research pipeline and given the promising results we’ve seen over that period, the next logical step was to make a significant investment in the healthcare space through Headspace Health.”
Headspace Health will be led by Managing Director Dr. Joe Powers, a 20-year veteran of the digital health space, who will report directly to Dr. Jones-Bell.
“When our Co-Founders Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson first conceived of Headspace, their initial vision involved normalizing meditation into medicine,” Dr. Powers said. “With the formation of Headspace Health, we’re realizing Andy and Rich’s goal of making meditation a scientifically-proven form of treatment for health care providers and platforms everywhere, giving us the opportunity to have a profound impact on the health and well-being of millions worldwide.”
About Headspace Health
Established in 2018, Headspace Health, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Headspace, is pioneering new ways to incorporate the innovative Headspace meditation experience into digital medicine. The company plans to deliver the world’s first prescription meditation app to health professionals and their patients in 2020, when it anticipates the introduction of the first product in its portfolio of newly developed, clinically-validated and FDA-cleared meditation programs specifically designed to treat a broad range of chronic diseases.
About Headspace
Headspace, a global leader in meditation and mindfulness, was founded in 2010 by Andy Puddicombe and Rich Pierson with the goal of improving health and happiness around the world. Through its core suite of meditation app and online offerings, Headspace has already reached nearly 30 million users in 190 countries. The company also operates a B2B business focused on offering its meditation products to companies everywhere as part of employee benefits packages, and a partnerships team that has forged robust relationships with many of the world’s most recognizable brands, including Apple, Amazon, Google, Nike, the NBA and more. For more information please visit us at www.headspace.com, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
