Futures Recovery Healthcare Chief Operating Officer Dr. Tammy Malloy Named a Finalist in the Constellation Research SuperNova Awards for Pioneering Artificial Intelligence Behavioral Health Symptom Assessment

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Oct 17, 2023, 08:30 ET

JUPITER, Fla., Oct. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Futures Recovery Healthcare Chief Operating Officer Tammy Malloy, Ph.D., has been named a finalist in the Constellation Research SuperNova awards for her pioneering research in the use of artificial intelligence to enhance the accuracy of clinical syndrome assessments. The firm has profiled Dr. Malloy extensively as part of the award proceedings, producing both a video and a written article on her work at Futures.

Futures Behavioral Healthcare treats clients experiencing dual-diagnosis conditions (substance use and co-occurring mental health conditions) and mental health disorders. The facility also offers specialized programs and tracks that allow treatment to be better tailored to client needs. As a high-quality, evidence-based behavioral healthcare provider accredited by the Joint Commission, Futures Recovery Healthcare uses measurement-based care — systematically tracking symptoms — to assess clinical progress throughout treatment.

Assessment and diagnosis are central to effectively treating clients and producing beneficial long-term treatment outcomes. Symptom rating scales, which are typically forms filled out by clients, are the current gold standard for assessing symptoms of anxiety, depression, substance misuse, suicidality, and other crucial measures of health and wellness. While highly effective, symptom rating scales share a common vulnerability — the possibility that clients do not accurately report the presence or severity of their symptoms.

Dr. Malloy is an experienced psychiatric and behavioral health researcher and clinician who has long believed the field's reliance on symptom rating scales misses critical opportunities. "I have watched countless clients who are visibly experiencing heightened agitation, stress, anxiety, or other somatic expressions of distress complete a form that suggests they are not experiencing any of these symptoms," says Malloy. "There is a good reason for this. Regardless of how comfortable people feel with their clinicians, the stigma and shame surrounding mental and behavioral health disorders is so strong that many people feel uncomfortable accurately reporting what they are feeling because they fear the response from their provider."

Malloy got the opportunity to test a new clinically validated, artificial intelligence-based psychometric assessment tool when an advisory board member introduced her to a company called Aiberry. Aiberry has developed an AI-powered mental health assessment platform whose mission is to address the very problem Malloy and colleagues have long struggled to overcome — reducing errors and subjectiveness of client-provided questionnaire responses. With Aiberry, clients verbally answer questions posed by a virtual 'bot' that analyzes text, audio, and video cues clients present during the virtual conversation. The data collected by Aiberry is analyzed by the artificial intelligence tool and provided to clinicians in real time. After more than nine months of testing, Aiberry analysis consistently identifies higher rates of depression and suicidality than written rating scales, which substantially improves the ability of clinicians to optimize treatment plans to address these findings. Additionally, three-quarters of clients significantly prefer using the technology to completing questionnaires administered by their clinicians.

"The effectiveness of Aiberry suggests that a client that would normally not complete an assessment or minimize their responses, are more comfortable providing honest responses to an analytical device than to a human and that the artificial intelligence can better identify the presence and severity of symptoms than traditional assessment tools," says Malloy. "AI-based symptom assessment tools seem like the future of the mental and behavioral health fields. They offer more accurate diagnoses more quickly, which means we can serve clients more efficiently and effectively throughout the continuum of care."

The SuperNova Awards are awarded by Constellation Research^™, a technology research and advisory firm recognizing leaders in disruptive technology in numerous categories. Constellation Research identified Malloy as a SuperNova Award nominee because her close collaboration and knowledge-sharing with the Aiberry team to improve its technology was seen as a co-innovation. Award winners will be announced at an October 25 gala.

Media Contact:
Elizabeth Potts
Futures Recovery Healthcare
Executive Director of Specialty Programs
EPotts@futuresrecoveryhealthcare.com

SOURCE Futures Recovery Healthcare