Ethics

The emergent psychedelic field invites new considerations spanning social justice and inclusion, to data use and privacy. We are committed to being a community leader in both equitable access to psychedelic medicine and the ethical flow of data.

While we know that Maya will play a key role in generating essential insights into psychedelic therapy practices, we also acknowledge that this role comes with responsibility. We consider ourselves ethical stewards of personal data. The following commitments serve as the foundation for everything that we do and everything we stand for.

David Champion

CEO of Maya

Maya's Ethical Commitments

Purpose Over Profit

We are a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) which means our team members, advisors, investors, and supporters are aligned to prioritize purpose and not just profit. We are laying the foundations of a global environment for psychedelic healthcare to scale safely and effectively.
We are committed to ethically-aligned investment which means all of our investors are required to sign our Investor Covenant.

Read Our Investor Covenant

Responsible Data Stewardship

We adhere to the best practices set out by www.dataethics.eu.
We give you control over your health information.
We want you to decide how your information is used and with whom it is shared.
We will not sell or lease your individual-level information to any third party without your explicit consent.
We will ensure that your individual-level information is restricted from unauthorized access or export.
All Maya user data is secured with AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) 256-bit SSL end-to-end encryption.
Any and all PHI (Patient Health Information) is protected and secured in accordance with HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).
Patients have the authority to retract their data from the system at will.
If you opt in and consent to participate in our research, your de-identified data will be used to contribute to research at Maya PBC or third-party institutions working with Maya PBC.
Consenting allows our researchers and approved third-party researchers to use a customer's de-identified data in aggregate for a variety of studies.
We will not use your data to market to you or sell you products, without your explicit consent via opt-in.

Read Our Statement on Data and Privacy

Acknowledging Risks

Greatest technology risk:

A breach in our security exposing patient health information. We are mitigating this by investing in third party security consultants as well as database design consultants, healthcare compliance consultants, and third party audits. Our unit testing now provides 95% code coverage to automatically expose any such vulnerabilities. We also have zero-trust security policies mandating strict verification of any connection to the systems both inside and outside of the organization. We conduct audits of all reads and writes of PHI to the database. We have integrated quality assurance processes incorporating security gates to identify and reduce vulnerabilities in code prior to release.

Greatest market risk:

An incumbent digital therapeutics company with pre-existing technology may enter the sector. We are mitigating this by focusing on brand and community. The psychedelic community is extremely protective and mission-driven, and has already been vocal of its support for Maya’s values-aligned stance. We are building a data moat composed of psychedelic treatment specific protocols and health outcomes data that will continuously differentiate Maya’s value.

Greatest execution risk:

Expanding to different audience segments may pull our product priorities in divergent directions. Currently we believe the private practitioners, clinicians, retreat leaders, life science researchers, and academic researchers all need the same platform to perform research programs. However, their needs differ and we are mitigating this risk by focusing on functionality that serves all segments, while working with smaller cohorts across each.

Greatest regulatory risk:

If there are too many cases of mishandled psychedelic treatments resulting in harmful outcomes, the positive momentum towards federal legalization could be reversed by negative press and legislator fear. We are mitigating this risk by preparing our platform and server architecture for a global rollout. We believe firmly that no matter the decisions of one country, psychedelic treatments will be legalized for their merit at-large.

Listening to the Community

We are signatories on the North Star Psychedelic Ethics Pledge. The North Star Pledge is an opportunity for companies in the psychedelic space to consider seven key commitments and make them their own.

Read the North Star Ethic Pledge

We encourage community engagement through our Council of Guides. Every element of Maya, from our software platform to our business model, is developed in collaboration with psychedelic practitioners, educators, and researchers.

Read Our Council of Guides

We highlight a diverse collection of luminaries on our Psychedelic Therapy Podcast. The podcast is a weekly conversation series with leaders in the psychedelic community specifically for therapists, healers, retreat leaders, and passionate enthusiasts.

Listen the Podcast

Giving Back and Supporting Equal Access to Psychedelic Healthcare

We will offer discounted software to practitioners, healers, guides, and clinicians who have equal access programs for underserved clients and those who would not otherwise be able to access the platform.

We will sponsor online learning opportunities for practitioners operating in underserved communities.

We will offer non-commercial usage licenses for researchers in an effort to accelerate psychedelic research through access to anonymized aggregated data.

We will give away a percentage of our profits, with a preference to supporting non profit organizations that are aligned with our mission.

Start Within

I pledge to ground my work in the field with work on myself, and to treat personal growth as a lifelong process.

ACTION: Maya is committed to supporting our team members’ personal growth and to developing our company culture to be one of transparency, mindfulness, kindness, and integrity. As such, Maya provides paid time off for all employees to pursue personal development opportunities, and provides additional paid time off to encourage the necessary integration processes. Additionally, we invest in regular team retreats in nature to cultivate a strong ethos of collective growth and empowerment. We consider this an investment in our team and our broader mission. Our leadership team has a particular focus on strengthening a shared mindset of generosity, compassion, abundance, and humility. We have invested in personal development through programs spanning from ceremonial medicine work to group philosophy programs such as Landmark, to coaching, therapy, and philanthropy. We continue to open our minds to new ways of learning and expansion so that we can serve Maya and its mission most effectively.

Study the Traditions

I pledge to grow my knowledge of the history of psychedelics and their many traditions of use, in a good-faith effort to appreciate both the potential of these substances and the conflict and complexity surrounding them.

ACTION: We have created the The Psychedelic Therapy Podcast, as a platform to disseminate the knowledge of various experts and wisdom teachers, and to bring challenging topics to light. Our Psychedelic Therapy Facebook Group is intended as a safe space for psychedelic practitioners to support one another in their work and development. On matters which don’t fall under our core competency, we graciously defer to other experts and organizations in the field.

Build Trust

I pledge to invest in building trust in my relationships across the psychedelic field, and repair trust where possible.

ACTION: In addition to building relationships through The Psychedelic Therapy Podcast and the associated Psychedelic Therapy Facebook group, we have cultivated the Council of Guides. This carefully curated group of psychedelic practitioners is designed to help us better understand the needs of the community, and illuminate our inevitable blind spots. We believe that listening to the valuable insights of our community is the best way for us to continue to learn, grow, and evolve, so in turn, we can better serve.

Consider the Gravity

I pledge to consider the implications of the choices that I make, understanding the potential consequences of unethical behavior to individuals, communities, and the psychedelic field at large.

ACTION: We recognize that as the leading provider of software services for psychedelic practitioners, we will have a major impact on the field. That is why we are structured as a Colorado Public Benefit Corporation, which means that our investors, advisors and team members are all aligned to prioritize our purpose above profit. To safeguard this commitment, we require investors to sign an Investor Covenant in agreement to our five principles as a corporation.

We also prioritize the integrity of our Statement on use of Data and Privacy We commit to transparency and an “opt-out frame-work” for the use of aggregated patient data. We are HIPAA and GDPR compliant and commit to being wise and ethical stewards of the data transfer between patients, practitioners, and researchers.

Focus on Process

I pledge to make the process as important as the outcome, letting the future I hope to see guide the approach I take in getting there.

ACTION: As a software company, we are constantly working on improving our platform as we listen to the needs of the psychedelic community. We recognize that our actions and decision-making processes must be held in the highest integrity at all times. Our careful attention to our processes is the core reason why we were methodical and intentional while building our version of the North Star Pledge. We felt it was necessary to first participate in numerous town hall meetings and workshops to better understand the concerns of the broader community.

Create Equality and Justice

I pledge to ground my work in the field with work on myself, and to treat personal growth as a lifelong process.

ACTION: As an early stage startup company, it is important for us to focus on the most impactful initiatives that we can pursue and resist temptation to solve the many diverse issues at hand. Due to the size of our potential impact, we have chosen safe, widespread, and affordable access to psychedelic medicine as our primary approach to supporting equality and justice. We will offer discounted software to practitioners, healers, guides, and clinicians who have equal access programs for underserved clients and those who would not otherwise be able to access the platform. We will sponsor therapy education programs online so that under-represented practitioners can attain the same quality of training as any other. Additionally, our commitment to supporting diverse voices is evident through the roster of podcast guests and topics on The Psychedelic Therapy Podcast.

Pay It Forward

I pledge to support the flourishing of the psychedelic field and the communities in which I work, and to give back should my work lead to personal gain.

ACTION: In order to properly serve the community, we are committed to donating to the psychedelic community once we are able to reach profitability. We hope to be the catalyst in a domino effect of organizations that will choose to “pay it forward.” When psychedelic therapists treat their patients using the Maya platform, they are also providing valuable insights to their peers and the psychedelic community at large.

Ethics

North Star Pledge from the Auryn Project