Happify is expanding into mental health research with the launch of a new program called Happify Labs. As a result, the New York-based startup will team with academic researchers to conduct clinical trials on interventions related to positive psychology and neuroscience. Additionally, the program will provide researchers with access to data from Happify users so they could conduct large-scale analysis of well-being interventions.

“We have always wanted the information on Happify to be based in science. Happify Labs is the natural progression of that,” said Chief Scientist Acacia Parks, adding that Happify Labs will mark the first time that Happify will be able to test objective data, not just rely on self-reported measures of well-being.

Happify Labs kicks of in partnership with psychologists Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California, Riverside; and Judith Moskowitz of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. The initial study will be partly funded by Moskowitz who seeks to create a well-being intervention for people with Type 2 diabetes; she is leading a program that tests hemoglobin A1c levels in diabetic patients over a four-week period.

“The collaboration with Happify Labs provides a unique opportunity to test our hypotheses about positive emotion and health behavior in a format that is widely accessible,” Moskowitz said in a statement.

Happify was previously featured in one peer-reviewed research paper which explored relationships between usage, language and patient outcomes on Happify. Said study appeared online August 31 in the open-access Journal of Medical Internet Research.

[Via: MedCityNews]