March 25, 2024
Aiberry is a mental health assessment platform powered by AI that offers a mental health screening solution to the healthcare industry. To learn more about the company, Pulse 2.0 interviewed Aiberry co-founder and co-CEO Linda Chung.
Chung’s professional journey has been shaped by a passion for effective communication, helping people, and promoting mental health. And Chung strongly believes that mental health resources should be accessible to everyone.
“At Aiberry, we’re striving to revolutionize what ‘good’ means by using objective assessments and quantifiable outcomes,” said Chung. “In my previous roles in both the public and private sectors, I worked with adolescents and witnessed firsthand the frustrating lack of communication between these sectors. This experience deepened my understanding of the strong connection between mental health and progress in speech and language pathology (amongst many other conditions), as effective communication is essential for both.”
Since joining the company, Chung dedicated most of her time to ensuring that the product works seamlessly in their customers’ environments. Working alongside co-CEO Johan Bjorklund, a technology veteran with expertise in leadership and growth strategy, they bring complementary skill sets to the table. While both of them always respect each other’s opinions, Chung is primarily responsible for understanding customers’ needs and Bjorklund often takes the lead on organizational and strategic matters. Overall, their shared commitment to making mental health resources more accessible and effective drives our collaboration and success at Aiberry.
The team lives in Seattle where homelessness, drug addiction, and mental health issues are on public display every day. Bjorklund and the founding scientist Dr. Newton Howard had known each other for about a year through a business relationship when Bjorklund was at Ericsson. Bjorklund was always fascinated by Newton’s research in brain science and when he discussed the concept of doing something in the mental health space with Linda along with the other co-founders, Dr. Howard and Lior Auslander, the concept of Aiberry was born.
“At the core of Aiberry’s platform is an AI-powered therapeutic assistant that engages users in a conversation to detect mental health disorders. This assistant analyzes what is being said, speech patterns, and even subtle changes in facial expressions to provide an accurate assessment of mental health risk,” Chung explained. “The platform is versatile, enabling screenings in various settings, including doctor’s offices, schools, workplaces, and even homes. Aiberry’s assistant has a calming and inviting voice, making users feel at ease, and is available at any time of the day or night.”
Following each screening, both users and clinicians receive a risk level score for mental health disorders, including suicidal ideation along with screening insights like mood, concentration, and energy levels. This information is essential for creating personalized treatment plans and tracking progress over time.
Unlike other mental health resources that depend on user numbers to gauge success, Aiberry’s platform offers quantifiable and objective outcomes that could be tracked over time. And this provides a more reliable measure of success, enabling organizations to determine the most effective mental health resource for their specific needs and goals.
Aiberry’s commitment to providing more accurate and reliable mental health screenings has made it an excellent option for clinicians, corporate wellness providers, and other mental health professionals seeking telehealth, text-based therapy, or on-demand content. And with Aiberry’s platform, organizations could make informed decisions and take a proactive approach to improve mental health outcomes.
“Taking Aiberry from an interesting idea to a full-fledged business was a journey that required a lot of effort and dedication. We started with multiple pilot studies to train and fine-tune our AI algorithm, and only when we felt confident did we move onto high-throughput testing for several months,” Chung added.
“We knew that clinical validation was essential for our healthcare technology, so we partnered with the University of Arizona and Georgetown to conduct a clinical study, which is wrapping up soon. Meanwhile, we teamed up with the Futures Recovery Center to pilot our platform. The patients underwent both Aiberry screening and clinician-led screening, and we were thrilled to see that they agreed with each other 92% of the time. We’re currently working on resolving the remaining cases.”
Aiberry’s founding technology was based on Dr. Newton Howard’s Theory of Intention Awareness. And this theory focuses on a computer system’s ability to comprehend the human intent behind a command. While the company initially used this theory in their proof of concept, the platform has since undergone significant evolution as they have transitioned to full implementation.
“Under the guidance of Jason Shumake, Ph.D., Director of Data Science, our clinical and data science teams have developed an approach grounded in a simple principle: the best way to reveal symptoms of depression is to ask about them. This approach uses a semi-structured clinical interview that empowers people to express their symptoms in their own words, which enhances our platform’s ability to capture, model, and quantify the presence of depression symptoms,” Chung noted.
When I asked Chung about a specific customer success story, she cited an example that details a clinician and her patient’s willingness to cooperate.
“The clinician was preparing to see a patient who had a history of being uncooperative during sessions – rarely filling out forms and remaining quiet. The clinician shared her concerns with the Aiberry team, suggesting that they skip this patient as they may not provide useful insights,” Chung shared. “However, the team decided to give it a try and used Botberry, Aiberry’s virtual therapy assistant, to conduct the assessment. To the clinician’s surprise, the patient opened up and engaged in a longer, more meaningful conversation than ever before. This unexpected breakthrough provided the clinician with valuable insights, allowing her to tailor future treatment programs to the patient’s needs more effectively.”
Aiberry recently secured $8 million in seed funding led by Confluence Capital Group (CCG) with participation from the VC fund Ascension AI. And the new funding brought the total funding to $10 million. The funding will be used for accelerating the adoption of the Aiberry platform.
Chung highlighted the global behavioral healthcare software and services market size is expected to reach $7.4 billion by 2027, expanding at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.5% from 2022 to 2027. North America has the largest share of the market (42%) and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.1%.
Many companies have a consumer-facing approach to screening for mental health and Aiberry’s model is focused on the clinician.
“Typically, they rely on a digital questionnaire for intake and ongoing monitoring. However, Aiberry’s platform offers a more comprehensive intake and monitoring system. By partnering with companies operating in the telehealth space, Aiberry’s platform can provide an objective and reproducible method for intake, monitoring, and quantifying outcomes,” Chung pointed out.
I asked Chung about notable company milestones and she answered:
I asked Chung about the company’s future company goals.
“Our goal is to make Aiberry accessible to as many people as possible, as we truly believe that everyone can benefit from better tracking of their mental health,” Chung concluded.” Aiberry offers a simple and engaging way to screen yourself for mental health disorders, and we’re eager to partner with like-minded organizations to expand its reach. As we continue to develop the platform, we plan to incorporate additional mental health disorders and languages to appeal to a global market.”
Aiberry is an objective, accurate, and scalable platform, designed to support mental healthcare providers in their initial screening process, and enabling them to offer their expertise and care with greater efficiency and to more patients.
