App uses voice analysis, AI to track wellness of people with mental illness

A new study finds that an interactive voice application using artificial intelligence is an effective way to monitor the well-being of people being treated for serious mental illness. Researchers from UCLA followed 47 people for up to 14 months using an application called MyCoachConnect. The data were collected from 2013 and 2015. All of the patients were being treated by physicians for serious mental illnesses, including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. For the study, published in PLOS One, participants called a toll-free number one or two times a week and answered three open-ended questions when prompted by a computer-generated voice.