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Taking on depression using AI

Published: 8 February 2019

McGill-based startup Aifred Health recently nabbed first place and a $35,000 Milestone Award in the latest stage of the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE. By doing so, they also became one of 30 teams to qualify for the next phase of the four-year, $5-million competition whose final winner will be announced in 2020. The XPRIZEs are international monetary rewards meant to encourage technological development to benefit humanity.

Founded by McGill students and alumni, Aifred straddles the realms of technology and medicine where it is poised to contribute to one of society’s greatest health-care needs.

The hard work is paying off – as demonstrated by the latest XPRIZE result.

“For the XPRIZE, the product has to be tested in the real world,” explains David Benrimoh, MDCM’16, a psychiatry resident at McGill and co-founder and CEO of Aifred.

“We have the best practice guidelines and evidence, but they’re not in any clinically accessible format,” explains Sonia Israel, BSc’18, co-founder and director of partnerships at Aifred.

Read the complete story here.

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