This start-up is able to detect depression through the sound of your voice

Singapore based start up, Wonder Technology was founded back in 2015 by Wendy Wu and has recently been receiving attention for their invention for their company’s services. The technology company has found an interesting application of AI in the mental health sector, using it for diagnostics.

Why this matters

In the present day, an individual who suspects that they have a mental illness, such as depression, will have to see a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist to get diagnosed. 

However, this method has its own issues due to a variety of factors — it’s costly, and the stigma around mental illness deters patients from seeking early assessment, which can result in delayed treatment.

Furthermore, psychiatric evaluation is not very accurate; 39.2% of people with mental health conditions face a misdiagnosis of psychiatric disorders. The reason as to why is a subject of debate amongst psychologists, and could be for reasons such as the diagnostics needing a subjective opinion, or symptoms of a physical issue. For example, those with a vitamin D deficiency can have symptoms of fatigue and impaired cognitive functions, which are common in symptoms of depression. 

Although the reason behind this inaccuracy is contested, what remains is that diagnosis is not straightforward.

So what?

The solution that mental health professionals have arrived at is focussing on treatment instead of diagnostics — prescribing medication to address the issue directly. However the gap in mental health diagnoses remains, especially as the prevalence of poor mental health among Singapore’s youth is projected to increase over the years.

This context around mental illnesses and the complexities accurately diagnosing them is likely the reason that Wonder Tech is receiving considerable attention from Singapore’s government. This start up offers an AI that detects vocal changes in a person’s voice to identify depression.

According to the start up, their service only needs a minute long voice sample which can be in any language to provide a mental health screening. This makes the software particularly accessible as individuals from a variety of countries will be able to use Wonder Tech’s services. The recording can also be captured through a phone, without additional hardware.

What now

In 2023, the start up won the Best Healthcare Innovation award held by the Singapore Temasek Foundation in 2023 and received the guidance of Singapore’s newly established Centre for Healthcare Innovation Evaluation Framework (CHIEF). This framework tests the safety of healthcare technology, while also helping start ups develop.

Wonder Tech’s Voice-AI has an 83% accuracy and has been supported by Singapore’s Ministry of Health and Temasek Foundation. They will also be partnering with Fischer Medical Ventures, a company based in India that primarily manufactures chemicals and MRI systems.

It will be interesting to keep an eye on the development of Wonder Tech moving forward as they refine their Voice-AI.

This article was originally published in The Peak.