How Machine Learning Could Transform Psychiatry

Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder are working to apply machine learning to psychiatry, with a speech-based mobile app that can categorize a patient's mental health status as well as or better than a human can. "We are not in any way trying to replace clinicians. But we do believe we can create tools that will allow them to better monitor their patients," Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, computers can now assist doctors in diagnosing disease and help monitor patient vital signs from hundreds of miles away. Nearly one in five U.S. adults lives with a mental illness, many in remote areas where access to psychiatrists or psychologists is scarce. Others can't afford to see a clinician frequently, don't have time, or can't get in to see one.