Aifred Health Takes 2nd Place in Global IBM Watson AI XPRIZE Competition

Mental health has been top of mind for all of us amidst the pandemic. Many people, of all ages, have been reporting increased incidents of anxiety, depression and stress. A recent survey shared by KKF notes that 41.1% of adults in the U.S. reported symptoms of anxiety disorder and/or depressive order in January 2021, compared to 11.0% in 2019.

In December 2020, Highline Beta invested in Aifred Health because we believed in the team and the technology they’re developing to improve mental health outcomes. The solution uses AI to learn from patient data to offer treatment recommendations and reduce the time taken for a patient to reach remission.

As Aifred Health continues to develop and pilot their technology, they’re also being recognized for their work. Recently, the company announced that they received a 2nd place finish in AI XPRIZE, a global competition sponsored by IBM Watson that recognizes meaningful initiatives using AI to tackle some of humanity’s most pressing challenges.

Aifred Health was the only Canadian finalist in the competition, and received USD $1M for their second place finish. The AI XPRIZE recognizes Aifred Health for the impactful work they’re doing using AI to solve a global health issue.

The USD $1M prize will be used to accelerate the delivery of our AI technology in the field of depression and to begin the work to apply our tech to other disease indications where personalized treatment choice is needed to deliver better outcomes to patients.”

Marina Massingham
CEO at Aifred Health

Aifred Health is looking to get their product into the hands of clinicians who can use it to support their patients and drive better outcomes for people with major depression. They’re currently running numerous pilots with positive results. Here’s Aifred Health’s video from AI XPRIZE: