Duane DiFranco Joins Harvard MedTech’s Medical Advisory Board

Harvard MedTech has added Duane DiFranco, M.D., to its Medical Advisory Board. DiFranco is the senior medical director for Utilization Management at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
 
“Dr. DiFranco’s expertise in psychiatry and his passion for tackling substance abuse in this country make him an invaluable addition to our Medical Advisory Board,” Chief Medical Officer Gerry Stanley, M.D., said. “His leadership on Blue Cross Blue Shield’s Opioid Abuse Task Force gives him unique insight into the scale of this epidemic, especially among injured workers. Dr. DiFranco’s behavioral health background will be invaluable for developing even more effective ways of applying Vx Therapy during counseling sessions.”
 
Harvard MedTech is harnessing the new science of how the brain works to address pain and trauma. Vx Therapy combines specially designed virtual reality experiences, psychosocial support, behavioral health coaching, digital engagement, and proprietary AI algorithms to retrain neural pathways and alleviate the effects of trauma, including pain, PTSD, anxiety, depression and sleep disorders.
 
DiFranco has been active within managed care for the past 23 years, having joined the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan Heath System early in his career. There, he led the University’s Managed Behavioral Health Care Division at M-CARE while also teaching psychiatry residents and providing clinical care to patients. He left the University in 2007 to join Blue Care Network as Medical Director for Behavioral Health. DiFranco is a past president of the Michigan Psychiatric Society. His professional accomplishments include the design and implementation of a web-based patient portal—the M-STRIDES system—at the University of Michigan Depression Center and the implementation of a smoking cessation campaign at Blue Care Network that resulted in the largest decrease in tobacco use among Michigan health plans in 2016. DiFranco serves on the Board of Directors for Emmaus Health Partners and Board of Trustees for Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan.
 
The purpose of the Harvard MedTech Medical Advisory Board is to foster industry-wide innovation around Vx Therapy in the treatment of workplace trauma. Vx Therapy is a disruptive approach that uses virtual reality, behavioral coaching and artificial intelligence to alter the brain’s experience of pain, without drugs or unnecessary surgery. Each member’s specific expertise lends a particular lens on pain management which has been determined to have significant strategic importance.
 
“I am looking forward to applying my expertise in addiction management to exploring how behavioral health can play an even bigger role in the physical and mental recovery of injured workers,” DiFranco said. “The possibilities for applying this modality to all patients suffering from addiction are enormous.”
 
The company’s Vx Therapy model is the first to comprehensively integrate this combination of digital technologies with behavioral health interventions, in a virtual application delivered to patients in the privacy of their home. This virtual engagement drives high compliance, enhanced patient satisfaction and optimal outcomes. It also allows the solution to be affordable and scalable at a population health level. This non-invasive and non-pharmacological approach also provides data that is trackable for a clear assessment of its value to patients and health care providers.