there are myriad options for treatment when dealing with mental health issues — cognitive behaviour therapy (cbt), support groups and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (ssri) to name a few — but much of mental health treatment comes from trial and error. what works for one patient is not guaranteed to work for another.
aifred health plans to eliminate that part of the process through their app. patients answer standardized questionnaires about their mental health weekly, which are then sent to clinicians. aifred’s artificial intelligence will determine the best treatment for them, as well as their probability of remission.
“almost all treatments are effective, but that is not true on an individual level, hence the need for ai to match patients to individual treatments,” says marina massingham, chief executive officer of aifred. “depression and anxiety alone is [more than] a trillion dollar burden worldwide, so it’s a global need.”
massingham says that it only takes about 15 to 20 minutes for patients to complete the questionnaire.
however, it will be a lot longer before they can expect feedback on based on their information. pending health canada’s regulatory approval, massingham doesn’t expect public use of aifred until 2023 at the earliest.