In a groundbreaking endeavor, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa has been awarded a $2.18 million New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant, part of NIH’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program, has been allocated to Assistant Professor Peter Washington from the Information and Computer Sciences Department. Professor Washington’s mission? To leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to transform the diagnosis of mental health conditions and developmental disorders such as autism and ADHD. This research project promises to unlock the potential for earlier identification and intervention, offering hope to countless individuals and families.
The new innovator award: fueling visionary research
The NIH’s New Innovator Award is a testament to its commitment to pioneering research in the realm of behavioral and biomedical sciences. In 2023, the program unveiled 85 grants, amounting to approximately $187 million, to support scientists with groundbreaking ideas. Professor Peter Washington’s research lab, known as the Hawaiʻi Digital Health Lab, will receive five years of funding to push the boundaries of AI-based diagnostics.
AI: A game-changer in mental health diagnosis
While AI has made remarkable strides in diagnosing various health conditions, it faces a formidable challenge when it comes to understanding complex social human behavior through video analysis. This limitation has hindered AI’s ability to diagnose mental health conditions and developmental disorders accurately. Professor Washington’s visionary project aims to overcome this obstacle by creating AI models that collaborate with human subjects to establish computational diagnoses of subjective, complex, and social conditions in psychiatry. This collaboration takes place through the analysis of videos recorded during video game play, ensuring subjects’ privacy and adherence to health ethics.
Remote, accessible, and efficient diagnoses
The primary goal of this project is to create efficient, remote, and accessible psychiatric evaluations, all from the comfort of one’s home computer. The traditional diagnostic process, fraught with long waiting lists and limited accessibility due to factors like health insurance and clinician availability, has been a barrier to many seeking psychiatric care. Professor Washington’s project holds the promise of making psychiatric healthcare convenient and affordable for families residing in remote and underserved areas, such as rural Hawaiʻi.
Focusing on adolescent developmental delays
As a starting point towards broader psychiatric diagnostic applications, Professor Washington’s project will concentrate on diagnosing adolescent developmental delays, including conditions like autism and ADHD. The innovative approach of providing diagnoses remotely through automated AI analysis could expedite care for countless families. Additionally, the project recognizes the potential for using video games as a tool for AI analysis, making the traditionally burdensome diagnostic process engaging and enjoyable for children and adolescents.
Beyond healthcare: AI’s far-reaching impact
Beyond its profound implications for healthcare, Professor Washington’s project also holds significance from a computer science perspective. It involves harnessing AI in collaboration with a remote crowd of humans to measure human behavior with remarkable precision. This precision opens doors to predicting psychiatric diagnoses but also extends to broader applications, such as multimedia and social media analytics and educational technology. The project showcases the multifaceted capabilities of AI in understanding and enhancing human behavior.
The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s $2.18 million NIH grant for AI-driven mental health diagnosis represents a remarkable leap forward in the field of psychiatry. By combining the power of AI with video game analysis and human collaboration, Professor Peter Washington’s project promises more accessible and accurate diagnoses for mental health conditions and developmental disorders. This endeavor not only transforms healthcare accessibility but also showcases AI’s potential in measuring complex social human behavior, with implications far beyond the realm of psychiatry. It stands as a beacon of hope for individuals and families seeking timely intervention and support for these critical conditions.
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