How Vital Start Is Transforming Mental Health Care from Postpartum Struggles to VR Healing
Type: Profile
Focus Area: Patient Safety
From left to right: Vital Start Health Chief Growth Officer Danny Mendoza and Founder & CEO Kirthika Parmeswaran present Vital Health Start.
Vital Start Health began in 2017 as an incubator project at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Center for Innovation (PCI), initially focusing on medication management systems for infants exposed to drugs in the womb. After realizing a greater need in maternal mental health, the company shifted its focus to develop virtual reality (VR) and AI-driven solutions for conditions like perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs). Co-founders Kirthika Parmeswaran and Dr. John Chuo combined their expertise in technology and neonatology to create a platform for personalized, remote care for mothers from pregnancy through the first year postpartum.
The startup was recognized as one of the semi-finalists in the Patient Safety Technology Challenge Grand Awards. We were grateful for the opportunity to connect to see how their innovation has continued to progress to make an impact in patient populations.
1. What specific patient safety issue or personal experience inspired your innovation, and how did you identify the gap in the current healthcare system that your solution addresses? Can you please identify anyone else who is on your team?
Vital Start Health empowers families with VR-based, evidence-backed mental health care that is equitable, scalable, and designed for the next generation. Our immersive platform supports well-being from family planning through caregiving and chronic stress—at home, at work, and across the lifespan. As a University of Pennsylvania start-up, we combine clinical research, strategic partnerships (Philips, Premier Health, payors), and a zero-cost-to-client model reimbursed by insurance. We are building next-gen behavioral health infrastructure in a $167B market by integrating human-cantered care with scalable, reimbursable VR therapy—delivering resilient individuals who become stronger parents, caregivers, and employees.
Our founder and CEO, Kirthika Parmeswaran has first-hand experience as a new mother going through postpartum depression and being inundated by the stigma, anxiety and discrepancy in the healthcare system. Our co-founder Dr. John Chuo, MD has seen this as a physician and Neonatal Quality Officer at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Both of them are passionate about driving better mental health support for parents that is impactful, accessible and equitable, a huge need for health care today.
2. What were/are the major challenges you face/faced during development, and how did you overcome them?
Key challenges during development included obtaining funding for clinical research with human subjects and also reaching parents going through the family building and maternity journey. We overcame these challenges through health institution partnerships including licensing with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, obtaining awards, grants, raising investment from institutions such as Health and Human Services, New Jersey Economic Development Authority, Citizens, University Science Center, Drexel and Friends and Family, angels and syndicates such as TIE East West Nanocon Fund. We also launched a partnership with Philips Pregnancy+, that has a 40% market share in the US to reach pregnant parents who need the support.
3. Have you conducted any pilot studies or trials? If so, what were the outcomes?
We begin our solution design with focus groups and studies. We learned from focus groups with family partners in a NICU how visceral and impactful VR is for learning and relaxation. In the follow-up study, we saw PTSD levels trending downwards from the use of VR for psychoeducation. We also did an OBGYN study, where we saw a 70% reduction in stress before and after VR use for coping and net promoter score was twice the healthcare average.
Our clients have given us glowing testimonials of how they see a significant impact from our program on the maternity journey and life.
What steps have you taken/are you working toward to ensure compatibility with current healthcare systems and practices?
We have ensured that our platform and processes are HIPAA compliant and we have clear targeted programming, clinical workflows and standardized mental health screening with evidence-based care, with reimbursable VR therapy to ensure compatibility with current healthcare systems and practices.
4. How are you addressing potential barriers to access, especially in underserved communities? How are you addressing integration into current health systems?
Health equity, access, and fast acting quality outcomes are key areas of focus at Vital Start. With our virtual care clinic and VR at home through insurance, we are able to address the potential barriers to access, especially in underserved communities and we are actively working with physician and clinical champions in health systems to be able to work within current workflows and revenue cycle structures for successful deployment and care delivery.
5. How has the Patient Safety Technology Challenge impacted the trajectory of your innovation? What is next for Vital Start Health?
The Patient Safety Technology Challenge award has provided us visibility and given us impetus to continue on our journey to be best-in-class mental health for modern life. Vital Start realizes that family health and employee wellbeing are closely related and we have expanded our programming and platform to address the $167B behavioral health opportunity by bringing on site VR enabled resilience program to employers to address disability, stress management, return to work challenges.
6. If you could give one piece of advice to an early innovator, what would it be?
Be open to adapting to learnings from customers and evolving with market needs. An approach that has helped me develop grit in the journey is to view it as an "unfolding"; the goal remains the paths can change, and that is alright.
