Healthcare Communication

Our automatic diagnosis and prediction methods have been incorporated into online cognitive behavioural therapy for patients with depression and anxiety, supporting over 1,000,000 patients to date.

Improving Mental Healthcare through a Tool for Effective Clinical Communication

Mental illness affects one in four people in the UK and causes an economic and social cost estimated at £105 billion. Communication is key to mental health care, and treatment outcomes depend on the quality of communications they receive from their doctor. Many mental health conditions also have effects on patients’ language and interaction, and treatment often depends on talking therapies. Therefore interaction analysis can help both diagnose conditions and track treatment progress.

In partnership with colleagues in the Centre for Multimodal AI and Queen Mary's Unit for Community and Social Psychiatry, we have developed the DIALOG+ app. This innovative software has been designed to help structure conversation in patient-clinician meetings. Trials show that the intervention improves quality of life, reduces symptoms, and achieves a better outcome for independent living, work and social relationships.

Our TEMPO communication training programme helps clinicians develop conversational strategies and feel more engaged with their patients, and is now being delivered by 23 NHS Trusts nationally and 41 institutions internationally.

Our automatic NLP diagnosis and prediction methods have led to a patent and ongoing commercial use by IESO Digital Health Ltd in their online cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) treatment for patients with depression and anxiety, which has treated approximately 1,000,000 patients to date.