Diagnosing mental illness with physiological big data, the accuracy rate of Wangli Technology artificial intelligence products can reach 87%

In August, Arterial Network launched the topic of “mental health”, which comprehensively sorted out digital mental health products at home and abroad, and conducted case analysis on representative enterprises. We have found that there are many business opportunities in the mental health industry due to imbalances.

If there is a large number of people with mental illness, and the imbalance between the growth rate and the insufficient supply of psychiatrists, the imbalance between the cost of treatment for mental illness and the lack of coverage of medical insurance, the actual number of mental illnesses and the number of confirmed patients The imbalance between the two.

For the first two types of imbalances, some companies have tried to solve the problem by establishing auxiliary networks, developing digital diagnostic tools, and building 2B business models. We can't help but wonder if there are digital products for the diagnosis of mental illness. Which method will digital products use to optimize the diagnosis of mental illness? So, we found Wangli Technology.

Wangli Technology product image provided by Wangli Technology

The first product of Wangli Technology is an artificial intelligence drug addiction evaluation system based on physiological big data. It has been landed in Sichuan, Shandong, Beijing and other places. The accuracy rate of drug addiction status assessment can reach 87%.

Li Wei, founder of Wangli Technology, graduated from the Department of Psychology at Peking University and worked as a medical consultant at BCG (Boston Consulting). Subsequently, Li Wei started his business inside LeTV as the CEO of LeTV VR and established a team of 120 people. In 2017, Li Wei founded Wangli Technology. The R&D team is mainly from Beijing University, China University of Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, New York University, Penn University and other university talents, as well as technical engineering talents from Tencent, Ali and LeTV.

What is the point of combining mental illness diagnosis with artificial intelligence technology? How is the data for machine learning obtained? What is the application prospect? Recently, the arterial network conducted an exclusive interview with Li Wei, and Li Wei talked about his views on the above issues.

Law: Solving mental problems with physiological data

Before going to college, Li Wei’s strength was mathematics. After graduating from high school, he was sent to Peking University for his award in mathematics competition. He studied psychology and brain cognitive science and used to think in an objective and quantitative way. Li Wei believes that traditional mental illness and treatment lack accuracy. On the one hand, psychiatrists rely on subjective judgment to determine the diagnosis; on the other hand, no suitable biomarkers can be found to measure the therapeutic effect of mental health diseases.

In Li Wei's view, in addition to the patient's self-report, the physiological data such as EEG, heart rate and skin electrical signals and even changes in the expression of the patient can more objectively present the individual's mental illness and cognitive problems. The products of Wangli Technology are mainly composed of AI artificial intelligence evaluation system and biological collection equipment, which are independently developed by the team. When conducting mental illness and cognitive problem assessment, Wangli's solution is to require patients to perform specific tasks through techniques such as VR. During the process, the system collects the user's physiological data, using a specific artificial intelligence algorithm, which is given by the system. Data analysis and judgment as quantitative evidence for the status of the auxiliary diagnosis.

In fact, Wangli Technology's artificial intelligence assessment system and biological collection equipment are not limited to a single disease category, only support a certain type of mental illness or psychological problems, they are building a scalable algorithm platform. Based on this platform, Wangli Technology can develop algorithms for a variety of mental illnesses and cognitive problems, and further form different products. What we know is that at present, the Wangli team has developed a drug addiction evaluation system based on this platform, and successfully used the same AI algorithm platform to expand to the depression-assisted diagnosis evaluation. Depression-assisted diagnostic assessment has also reached 81% accuracy and is constantly improving. According to reports, in the future, the system will continue to expand into research and product development such as autism, schizophrenia, senile dementia, violent tendencies, suicide crisis and other issues.

The image of Wangli Technology in the Sichuan Women’s Compulsory Detoxification Center was provided by Wangli Technology

Of course, different product lines, their product paradigm is designed according to different mental and disease problems and different technologies and tasks. For example, the task design for drug addiction assessment is based on clue exposure induction, relying on VR to expose patients to drugs, drug tools or drug use scenarios, simulating drug use scenarios in life and providing corresponding scene clues in a safe and controllable environment. Next, measure the degree of drug craving. Patients with different levels of drug addiction will have different psychological fluctuations in the face of such scenes. For example, patients with high levels of drug addiction will have a strong desire to smoke in the face of ice, and the desire to smoke will be reflected in the activity of neurons. Conducting changes in EEG, heart rate, and skin electrical data, while patients with low levels of drug addiction may have lower levels of desire. Using AI artificial intelligence algorithms to dig deeper can find individual level differences, and thus as a drug addiction craving The objective basis for the degree of judgment.

Team: Find the ideal person and do the ideal thing

When talking about the formation of the team, Li Xiao laughed, "It is the fools of classmates, teachers and colleagues to do it together." However, the real "fudge" to the team partners can only be a common vision. In the past entrepreneurial experience, Li Wei did more to adapt to the market and find the right place. Despite the sweetness of standing in the air, Li Wei did not consider the market demand when he founded Wangli Technology. "I want to do something that I want to do from the heart." Li Wei, a psychology subject, has a strong interest in brain science and cognitive science. Fortunately, he found a group of cattle with the same interests.

Wangli Technology's AI algorithm team consists of a group of doctors, including outstanding graduates from the University of New York at Stony Brook. The research team consists of PhD in Peking University, Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience of Beijing Normal University, Nankai University, and University of Electronic Science and Technology. The operation team comes from Peking University Guanghua School of Management and Renmin University of China. The technical team is mostly from first-line Internet companies.

Vision: Making mental illness testing a daily activity

In Li Wei’s vision, the diagnosis and evaluation of mental health diseases is a phased product of Wangli Science and Technology. “Starting from speciality and then gradually moving toward generality.” Li Wei’s so-called “speciality” is the psychological and spiritual barrier. The state, and "generality" contains all the psychological state of the individual's daily life.

Li Wei believes that there is a wealth of information in the physiological data. “In the final application scenario of our products, the communication between people can be without language, and the communication of physiological data may be more sincere.” Such a scene is very sci-fi, but it is not without scientific basis. Li Wei has the confidence to gradually design, verify, Implement this scenario.

Wangli Technology's business model is based on 2B, providing solutions for drug rehabilitation centers, hospitals, schools, communities and other institutions. According to Li Wei, with the further exploration of the relationship between physiological data and psychological state, Wangli Technology will go to the C-end, allowing users to monitor and track their psychological state in real time, and escort mental health.