The Stratification Mandate

If you are reading this post, you probably arrived at this career page after hearing about Psykick either through my posts, a product announcement, or other means. Regardless of how you got here, I am glad you are here.

Psykick is my first attempt at building computational tools with clinical applications to improve how we understand, diagnose, treat, and prevent mental illness. You might be wondering how Psykick fits that goal.

First, beyond the fact that our current diagnostic and treatment solutions are partial at best, we still struggle immensely with administrative burdens. These burdens are manufactured by insurance companies and the way they reimburse mental health treatments.

Second, while there are many policies on the books, they lack enforcement mechanisms. Consequently, this administrative burden persists despite laws that mandate parity.

Third, I understand why insurers are reluctant to pay for these services. This is especially true knowing that psychiatry is one of the few areas of medicine lacking objective biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment. You can read about this in my article, "My First Time In An Ambulance," or if you want to experience what I mean, go shadow an ER doctor and then a psychiatrist in a psychiatric hospital.

However, these points are not unique. These problems are known, and many people have tried to solve them in different ways. Organizations like the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and policymakers from the state to the federal level have all made attempts, yet we are still not where we should be.

I don't claim to have all the answers. I also don't think I will suddenly change this entire field overnight. But I believe my intersectional interest in computation, policy, and mental health science will help me go a long way. Being an outsider helps me move from tinkering to thinking in terms of limits. I highly recommend you read this article on Asimov Press to get an idea of the power of Limit Thinking.

You might be wondering who I am. Unfortunately, I don't have a dramatic backstory. I studied computer science and cybersecurity in college, I work as an engineer, and I currently work as a mental health worker on the side. My goal is to become a psychiatric clinician. I am looking at potentially going to medical school or becoming a psychiatric nurse practitioner followed by a PhD in health policy focused on mental health services and economics. I am deeply interested in computational psychiatry, but I also want to actually talk to patients.

Aside from that, I am currently enrolled in a psychiatric technician program and earning a certificate in health information systems and data analytics. If you come work with us, you get free game on how to apply your computational skills to medicine beyond just biology and chemistry.

In dollar terms, the psychiatric services industry is worth almost $300 billion in total. The number of people with psychiatric diagnoses is staggering. It is almost a billion globally and 80 million in the U.S. alone. The toll of psychiatric illness is measured in death and disability, so it would be good to solve this problem by reducing that suffering. It is also okay to hope we make some money doing it. The NIMH spends over $45 billion on research and fights every year for budget increases. Hoping to build a sustainable business isn't bad provided that profit isn't our only motivating factor.

As a requirement for working here, I hope everyone can become a clinician in some capacity. I know how you can do it easily and cost-effectively. Becoming a licensed psychiatric technician is the lowest barrier to entry. It often gives you more time to spend with patients than if you were a psychiatrist or nurse. I know this because I have worked in this role, and I spend more time with patients than the doctors do. You get a real idea of how a patient experiences their diagnosis. This insight is critical as a first step in the limit thinking process. You want to experience the patient first-hand and then build solutions from there.

I must also point out that not all patients with the same diagnosis look the same. The way they exhibit symptoms varies greatly. Often, the diagnosis on paper doesn't match the reality in the room. This leads me to how I am trying to address these problems.

Psykick is just a product. Stratification Labs is the company. At Stratification Labs, our goal is to solve mental illness through both tooling and proper stratification. The goal is not just to publish peer-reviewed papers. We want to build medical psychiatric technologies, whether hardware or software. In the ER, they use medical technologies and sensors to aid diagnosis. I hope we can do the same for psychiatric issues. An ER doctor won’t order a CT scan for a headache unless the symptoms are severe and warrant it. Imagine trying to diagnose a headache caused by stress, lack of sleep, dehydration, or food with a CT scan? That is the precision gap Stratification Labs is approaching.

If you want to work at Stratification Labs, please read the following materials before applying.

Step 1: Read the materials below and write a two-page essay on what went through your mind while reading them. What was the experience like?

Step 2: Go work as a mental health worker at a partner psychiatric hospital for one week. You will apply as a per diem mental health worker or unlicensed psychiatric technician. After your week, you will write about your experience on the floor.

It would be great if you have a background in computer science, artificial intelligence, statistics, machine learning, or physics. We also want people with clinical experience, such as psychiatrists, nurses, or PAs, on our team. We will help you learn the tech side of things. For those with clinical backgrounds, please still read the materials. Tell us what you think of the current psychiatric healthcare systems, their clinical practices, and how you would do things better.

Further Readings