The Montréal digital health ecosystem is experiencing explosive growth in value creation, innovation and success. This edition of the BML Digital Health Company Spotlight features one of our favourite Montréal medical technology startups that we believe has the potential to revolutionize the treatment of mental health conditions, starting with depression. The company in question is Aifred Health.
Aifred Health uses artificial intelligence to improve the treatment of clinical depression. Aifred Health is stretching the boundaries of innovation by applying emerging artificial intelligence technology to take on a medical challenge that if successfully addressed will have a significant impact on the health of our fellow citizens, their families, the healthcare system and society at large.
Challenges in Mental Health: Clinical Depression
Depression is a serious global problem that affects over 300 million people, it will affect 1 in 9 people across the world during their lifetime. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic with its vast social and economic ramifications, the rate of clinical depression has increased.
Physicians have few tools to help them effectively select and manage mental health treatments based on the unique characteristics of their individual patients, leading to an arduous and lengthy “trial and error” approach to treatment. Nearly 70% of patients don’t find relief after their first treatment, 30% still won’t by their fourth.
The Aifred solution uses AI to learn from the clinical data of thousands of patients to help tailor individual treatment, significantly reducing the time it takes for a patient to reach remission.
It is encouraging to see an innovative company using AI to address the challenges in mental health as the need is significant. Mental Health issues are growing worldwide and current methods of diagnosis and treatment are subjective, outdated and ineffective. These issues also tend to attract fewer resources, when compared to high visibility diseases such as cancer or heart disease that are traditionally diagnosed and treated using objective measures.
The Aifred Health Solution
Aifred is a digital healthcare company using artificial intelligence to develop clinical decision support systems to help physicians make better treatment decisions in mental healthcare, starting with depression.
Aifred operationalizes best-evidence guidelines, together with AI-based insights, to support better treatment management, and to deliver on the promise of personalized medicine by matching individual patients to the right treatment. In one of the best examples we’ve seen of AI for good the goal is better treatment decisions and outcomes for patients. Aifred’s AI model makes personalized medicine a reality.
Aifred’s mission is to bring significant improvement to the treatment of depression, lifting the burden on patients, and the friends and loved ones who support them. Presently Aifred provides a patient, physician clinical decision support tool which helps the physician understand where the patient is on the disease cycle, monitor the patient over time, and determine ‘what to do next’ at each stage. This tool is being used by physicians to significantly improve quality of care and outcomes for their patients.
Aifred is an emerging company in the Montreal digital health technology ecosystem and counts leading organizations including MEDTEQ+, BDC Capital and the Desjardins Group among its investors and collaborators. This in addition to the District3 Innovation Lab, Centech Accelerator and many other contributors and partners.
The Aifread Health Team
Aifred Health brings together a diverse international team of healthcare leaders, clinicians, neuroscientists, computer scientists and researchers to tackle the global challenges in mental health. The management team is led by Marina Massingham, MSc who was brought in as CEO two years ago.
The company was founded by a complementary team of skilled professionals who are all still active in the company and key operating members of the management team, they were motivated by witnessing the struggles of friends, family members and patients with depression and became passionate about finding a solution. They are David Benrimoh, MD, CM, MSc., Robert Fratila, B.Sc., Sonia Israel, B.Sc. and Kelly Perlman, MSc.
Major Accomplishments and Milestones
Aifred has achieved a number of significant milestones in its short history and looks poised for significant future success. Most recently Aifred Health won the $1 Million Second Place prize in the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE Competition. The prestigious $5M IBM Watson AI XPRIZE challenged teams to demonstrate how humans can work with AI to tackle global challenges. The competition took place over 5 years and saw more than 150 teams participate from all over the world, and after years of review and expert due diligence Aifred Health, the only Canadian team to reach the top 10 finalists, won second place.
This result is a tremendous achievement for the firm and will fuel innovation, expansion to other medical conditions, and help Aifred reach the millions of patients who suffer with mental health issues every day.
The company has also obtained positive feedback from the initial trials of its technology and continues to develop its solution in preparation for regulatory approval, including a ten-site international clinical trial to validate efficacy. To that end, Aifred raised a $4 Million seed round from leading institutional and venture investors in December of 2020, and is fully funded to attain this benchmark.
Aifred Health and BML Technology: A customized approach to regulatory strategy
BML Technology is privileged to work backstage with companies carrying out some of the most impactful work in digital health, and we are proud of the work we do with Aifred Health in support of their mission of improving patient outcomes with the use of artificial intelligence.
At BML Technology we understand the complex stakeholder interactions necessary to get digital health solutions to market, this is particularly true for medtech startups who often find themselves in over their heads when eventually faced with the safety and efficacy requirements of a regulated industry. Medical device startups need a customized regulatory strategy that is suited to their short runways and high cash burns, not the lengthy and expensive traditional approach.
We help medical device startups successfully navigate complex regulatory environments with a lean, efficient approach to compliance, and appreciate when our customers find value in our solutions, as attested to recently by Aifred Health CEO, Marina Massingham.
BML has been a highly valued partner in Aifred Health’s journey toward Software as a Medical Device compliance. Marc provided impactful, hands-on support to the Aifred leadership team over a period of several months, helping us to understand, navigate and coordinate complex requirements across multiple functions. He became an invaluable extension of our team during this time, flexible and responsive to our needs, wholly committed to helping the team get up the learning curve, and dedicated in his support.
Marina Massingham, CEO Aifred Health
A warm thank you to Marina and the whole fantastic team at Aifred Health, working with them has been a pleasure and we look forward to continuing to support them in the future as they pursue their mission.
The future is bright for Aifred Health
Aifred Health has already accomplished many great things and we know this is only the beginning. We are proud to see this degree of cutting edge innovation and value creation taking place in Montreal and look forward with anticipation to their continued success and the improvements in mental health assessment and treatment they are making possible in Canada and the world. Go Aifred!
About BML Technology
BML Technology is an active participant in the digital health industry and expert in the tools, technologies and medical devices involved. BML has advanced competencies in Medical Device Regulatory Strategy, Medical Device Design for Compliance and the Health Canada Regulatory Approval Process and works with many startups, emerging firms and other digital health innovators to get their medical technology solutions compliant with all regulatory requirements.
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