Microsoft Healthcare program is collaborating with SilverCloud to spread mental health awareness. Mental health has become crucial to our well-being, especially in this ‘millennial’ age. We all know about its effects and consequences, and how devastating it can get. If your mental health goes down the drain, so does your physical health.
Why mental health?
Mental health has emerged as the most crucial aspect of sustaining a healthy lifestyle. More often than not, we tend to let it pass or treat it casually. Up until now, our society was not very accepting of this whole concept, until daunting events started cropping up, and horrible results started occurring.
Having a personal therapist or visiting a psychologist is the ‘human’ solution to this problem. But what if we tell you that Microsoft is rolling out a feature through which technology will help you? What if we say that you can avail of a mental health program, all through technology, and prevent the hassles of visiting your therapist every other day?
Clinical treatments are often laborious, not scalable, and on the expensive side. Microsoft Healthcare program has come to resolve all these inconveniences.
What is its mission?
Microsoft is collaborating with SilverCloud Health to develop an AI technology that will aid their digital mental health platform. SIlverCloud is one of the leading healthcare therapeutics platforms for mental and behavioral health.
Microsoft Healthcare program plans to use AI to mankind’s advantage and devise a workaround to help it make treatments more accessible. Microsoft Research Cambridge is striving to develop machine learning programs to meet people’s individual needs.
Azure Health
This program stems from Microsoft’s Kinetic Kit, which has sensors paired with a microphone to detect human movement. The sensor kit connects to Artificial Intelligence, which facilitates users to interact with AI over voice or by typing on a keyboard.
Smart speakers will let users convey their problems through Voice, and the smart voice assistant will advise on how to improve their mental health. This system will soon be incorporated in smartwatches and other smart devices.
The ultimate mission of the Microsoft Healthcare program is to collect the information and use it for the well-being of aged people. Mapo Senior Welfare Centre’s spokesperson conveyed in a statement that he feels Information Technology and AI can help in the growth of a mentally healthy community.
AI to test Mental Health
We cannot deny that smart speakers have always been our comfort companions. Technology has helped us battle loneliness by keeping us connected during tough times. Incorporating Voice to AI is starting to create a furor in the health and AI industry.
Interactions are necessary to battle mental health issues and loneliness. Industries are developing smart speakers and smart displays such that they can aid us for the same. Google recently donated 1000 Nest Hub Max smart displayed to retirement communities in Washington.
K4Connect distributed more than 8000 Amazon Echo products to places undergoing a tough time during COVID-19 to help battle loneliness and depression.
There are endless ways with the help of which Voice can help us ease our stress, and it only gets better with technology bringing those ways to life.
