Feasibility study for a novel mental health (psychosis) digital screening solution to improve the care and safety associated with mental illness.

这项应用的重点是开发新的方法来了解谁可能有精神障碍的风险。精神病是一种极具挑战性的精神健康状况，通常会导致个人出现幻觉和妄想。精神病发作可能是非常危险的，并导致改变生活的创伤和死亡。这种情况对个人、他们的家庭、亲人和医疗体系来说是一个巨大的负担。如今，发现精神病警告信号的唯一方法是直接咨询医疗保健专业人员。因此，在我们的社会中，有许多人患有未诊断的早期精神病，这对他们自己和周围的人都构成了巨大的风险。申请者在提交这份申请时，是使用数字技术检测精神病的领先研究人员。简单地说，这个团队正在开发一套直观的任务，促使人们对着手机说话，并记录自己的说话模式。他们的初步研究表明，原则上，软件可以分析这些口头反应，并确定一个人患精神病的风险是低、中还是高。最终目标是开发一种简单且低成本的应用程序，可以为患者开出处方，以快速评估他们患精神病的风险。这将使高危个人能够被识别出来进行相关的医疗干预。这个研究团队已经成立了一家公司来开发这个软件。开发过程中至关重要的下一步是进行可行性研究，以确定他们的软件原型是否能够区分一群志愿者用户中的健康和高风险人群。随附的应用程序专注于一项研发计划，以测试和改进软件的诊断性能。如果团队能够成功证明该软件原则上有效，他们将处于更有利的地位，以获得临床医生和投资者的支持。他们将能够获得所需的支持，以进行所需的正式临床研究，以证明该解决方案的好处及其对医疗保健提供者的价值。

This application is focused on the development of novel ways of understanding who might be at risk of having psychotic disorders. Psychosis is a highly challenging mental health condition and will typically result in the individual suffering from hallucinations and delusions. Psychotic episodes can be incredibly dangerous and lead to life changing trauma and fatalities. The condition is a huge burden on the individual, their family, loved ones and the healthcare system. The only way of spotting the warning signs of psychosis today is via direct consultation with a healthcare professional. Consequently, there are many in our society with undiagnosed early-stage psychosis, which poses significant risks to both themselves and those around them.The applicants, presenting this application, are leading researchers in the use of digital technologies for the detection of psychosis. In simple terms, this team is developing a set of intuitive tasks that prompt one to speak into a mobile phone and record one's speech patterns. Their initial research has shown that it is then, in principle, possible for software to analyse these spoken responses and determine whether an individual has low, medium or high risk of psychosis. The ultimate goal is to develop a simple and low cost application that can be prescribed to patients to quickly evaluate their risk of psychosis. This would enable high risk individuals to be identified for relevant medical intervention.This team of researchers has started a company to develop this software. The vital next step in the development is to conduct a feasibility study to determine if their software prototype is able to discriminate between healthy and higher risk persons from a group of volunteer users. The enclosed application is focused on a programme of R&D to test and refine the diagnostic performance of the software.If the team is able to successfully demonstrate that the software works in principle, they will be in a far better position to gain support from clinicians and investors. They will be able to secure the support they need to conduct the formal clinical studies needed to demonstrate the benefits of the solution and its value to healthcare providers.