HelloBetter Unlocks New Funding to Accelerate AI Product Development

Potsdam, Germany – November 7, 2024 – HelloBetter has secured 3 million euros in non-dilutive grant and loan funding for research, development and commercialisation of a transdiagnostic digital mental health solution that uses different technologies generally described as artificial intelligence (AI) to personalise the user experience, aiming at improving adherence, user satisfaction and overall mental health outcomes. The solution will be a wellness rather than a treatment product, complementing HelloBetter’s existing range of DTx solutions. The project named ‘MindFIT’, which was launched in stealth mode earlier this year with a total budget of 4.6 million euros, is funded under the ProFIT programme (Programm zur Förderung von Forschung, Innovationen und Technologien) and first results are expected next year. ProFIT is supported by the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Labour and Energy of Brandenburg through the Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg (ILB). 

The next generation of DTx: modular and transdiagnostic mental health solutions
While most traditional DTx treat patients with a specific diagnosis, MindFIT as a solution aims to support people on their mental health journey, long before they experience a clinically significant level of symptom severity. As such, it is a product any person that wants to maintain or improve their mental health can benefit from. In this, MindFIT is different from conventional digital therapeutics (DTx), which typically focus on addressing one specific condition by delivering a condensed therapeutic programme over the course of two or three months. Most individuals, however, over time, experience a combination of different mental health challenges, often simultaneously, exhibiting heterogeneous symptoms with varying degrees of severity. 
To address the needs of these users, MindFIT will employ a modular and transdiagnostic content structure. The objective of MindFIT is to build an adaptive digital mental health product that will provide the right intervention for each specific user at just the right time in order to improve their mental health. The modular structure allows to flexibly tailor the order and pace of the independent content modules to user’s needs, while the transdiagnostic character ensures that the product addresses multiple mental health challenges – such as feeling down, anxious or stressed or a lack of sleep – as early as possible.

The benefits of modularity: flexible adaptivity and  personalisation
Most traditional DTx solutions lack the level of flexibility and personalisation, offering the same linear experience to every user focused on a single condition, without analysing rich data sets that provide insights into their individual needs. Lack of personalisation is one of the reasons that patients drop out of interventions before reaping the full potential benefit they have to offer. Thanks to machine learning models and AI technologies such as semantic similarity and large language models MindFIT will be able to both understand user needs and to tailor a custom programme that takes different starting points and the specific context of each user’s individual situation into account. By providing personalised feedback and small just-in-time interventions based on all of a users’ past inputs, the model improves relevance, engagement and, ultimately, mental health outcomes. 
In summary, MindFIT is an accessible companion to a broad audience. It covers a range of typical mental health challenges almost everyone experiences to different degrees at different stages of their lives and provides adaptive, non-linear and highly personalised support – just like a human life coach would. 
 

MindFIT a crucial component of HelloBetter’s vision: a digital stepped-care model
HelloBetter’s cross-functional team working on MindFIT comprises experts in AI technology, data science, clinical psychology and product development. Since 2019, HelloBetter has been working on integrating AI into digital mental health care. The MAIKI project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, first explored the use of machine learning for data-driven digital phenotyping of depressive patients and laid the foundation for a personalised mental health solution. 
MindFIT will be a key component of HelloBetter’s digital stepped-care model, accessible to anyone aiming to improve their mental health before a clinical diagnosis is needed. If preventive measures fall short, at risk users could be routed via an escalating mechanism into more intense forms of care. Given that traditional talk therapy often is not readily available, this could be one of HelloBetter’s treatment DTx or some form of blended care, combining DTx, remote interactions with a therapist and AI. The company’s long term vision is to build a seamless patient journey that spans prevention and treatment, self-led digital solutions and talk therapy delivered by human therapists supported by AI.