A five-day challenge. A simple question. And an opportunity to rethink how we support brain health at work.
In celebration of World Brain Day (July 22), the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI) partnered with MOBIO Interactive, an OBI portfolio company, to launch TruSelf, a five-day brain health challenge designed to help people better understand their stress.
The premise was simple: stress is part of everyday life, but understanding how we experience and respond to it can be an important first step toward better brain health.
Through MOBIO’s Dawn DTx platform, participants completed brief daily check-ins and explored the relationship between their perceived stress and objective biological signals. The campaign invited people to pause, reflect and become more curious about their own patterns.
While the challenge itself lasted only five days, the opportunity it points to is much bigger.
Brain health impacts workplaces – a brain capital opportunity
Brain health is foundational to how we live, work and contribute. It shapes our ability to think, learn, adapt, connect with others and participate fully in our communities and economy.
That makes brain health an essential component of brain capital: the cognitive, emotional and social resources that enable people to thrive and drive innovation, productivity and economic growth.
For employers, supporting brain health must therefore be about more than implementing wellness activities and programming. It must be an investment in people and in the capabilities that organizations depend on.
As work becomes increasingly complex and demanding, organizations are recognizing that creating healthy workplaces means looking beyond physical health. It means building environments where people have the tools and support to better understand and manage the factors that affect their well-being – including stress.
From innovation to real-world use
The TruSelf challenge also reflects a core part of OBI’s approach to innovation: supporting impact-driven technologies and helping move them into the hands of people who can benefit from them.
MOBIO Interactive is part of OBI’s portfolio of neurotechnology companies. Through its Dawn DTx platform, MOBIO is developing artificial intelligence technology that uses computer vision and facial biometric signals to measure biological aspects of stress that are usually invisible to the naked eye.
The World Brain Day campaign provided an opportunity to take that innovation beyond the lab and into everyday life.
Participants were invited to spend just a few moments each day with the app to check in and reflect on their stress. In return, they could begin to explore the relationship between how they felt and the signals generated by their body.
Preliminary campaign results showed 208 sign-ups, including 88 through OBI’s channels, and participation from valued campaign partners (Thank you to the Alzheimer’s Society of Ontario, the European Brain Council, HeadFirst, the Hotchkis Brain Institute, the Inner Foundation, Start-Up Health!). OBI’s campaign activity generated more than 25,000 views and engagements across its channels and earned media, helping bring the conversation about brain health and stress to a broader audience.
What comes next
TruSelf was also a learning opportunity.
As we continue to build the case for the power of harnessing brain capital, one important question is how to help employers move from just recognizing the importance of brain health to taking meaningful action.
The early results reinforce that partnerships across different sectors and institutions will be critical. Building stronger connections with workplaces and corporate partners requires building trust and having a more intentional approach to supporting organizations as they engage their employees.
These lessons matter because workplace wellness is evolving. The future is not simply about offering more wellness activities. It is about creating practical, accessible ways for people to understand themselves, make informed choices and take proactive steps to support their brain health.
That is where innovative Canadian companies like MOBIO – and ecosystems like the one OBI is helping to build – can play an important role.
Building a brain-healthy future
The TruSelf challenge was a small experiment in a much larger idea: what if supporting brain health became a more intentional part of how we work, lead and build organizations?
For individuals, that can mean greater awareness and the tools to better understand their own well-being. For employers, it can mean healthier, more resilient and more productive teams. And for society, it is part of building the brain capital needed to support economic prosperity, innovation and human flourishing.
At OBI, we believe Ontario has an opportunity to lead in this space – not only by advancing the science of the brain, but by bringing together research, commercialization, and community to put that knowledge into action.
Because when we invest in better brain health, we are investing in our greatest asset: people.
If you’re interested in using the MOBIO app or other brain health solutions in the workplace, let’s chat!
Contact us: info@braininstitute.ca
