Company: Thymia
Founders: Stefano Goria and Emilia Molimpakis
Website: https://thymia.ai/
Business: Thymia is a mental healthtech startup that uses video games as a tool for mental health assessment.
About Stefano, Emilia and Thymia
Thymia is a mental healthtech startup revolutionising how mental health is assessed, diagnosed and treated using AI-powered video games.
1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem of some kind each year. Depression rates increased by 25% during the pandemic and nearly 55% of patients with major depressive disorder go misdiagnosed.
Yet the tools we use to assess depression have not evolved for decades. Doctors are still using the same subjective, biased and inaccurate questionnaires they have been using since World War I. These fail to accurately capture and continuously track mental health symptoms, meaning that finding the right treatment can take decades. This is the problem Thymia aims to solve.
Founded by neuroscientist Emilia Molimpakis and theoretical physicist Stefano Goria in 2020, Thymia has created a platform that uses explainable AI and gamified versions of neuropsychology protocols to identify symptoms of different mental health conditions, starting with depression.
While patients play a series of video games, the tool analyses voice, video and behaviour, empowering clinicians to accurately and objectively assess mental health and identify the right intervention sooner. The team also plans on building out the tool to assess ADHD, Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia and fatigue.
Thymia has raised $2.6m in Pre-Seed funding to date. The team has collectively published 9 peer-reviewed articles, and has given guest lectures at some of the most prestigious AI and Psychiatry institutions around the world, including the Alan Turing Institute and Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Earlier this year, CEO Emilia delivered a TED Talk at TEDxLondon. They have already signed contracts with customers around the world.
Making mental healthcare providers aware of the possibilities of AI – and building trust and confidence in the fact that AI is an invaluable tool, when used ethically – is a key challenge. Over the next year, Thymia is focused on launching its tool in mental health clinics across the globe.
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