University of Arizona College of Medicine adopts system to monitor student well-being

The University of Arizona College of Medicine has adopted a new system to more closely monitor its students' well being.

Early Alert is a system originally developed to help prevent a mental health crisis among medical students. That’s because medical students are at an increased risk for depression and suicidal ideation.

Eran Magen is the founder and CEO of Early Alert. He said students opt-in to receive a weekly text that asks a question about their wellness.

“And the topic of the question rotates through a few different wellness domains: emotional wellness, but also physical wellness, and financial wellness and social wellness. So we’re rotating through all these potential stressors," Magen said.

He says if the system identifies something a student is struggling with, Early Alert will connect them with resources on campus that can help them with their problem.

“Let’s say they’re saying that they don’t have enough money to pay for their basic needs, we can connect them with financial aid, we can connect them with emergency grants, we can tell them about a local food bank that can help them if things are extreme, and so on," Magen said. So just matching to the particular wellness domain that they’re struggling with.”