George Mason University Awarded NIH Grant to Develop AI Chatbot for Depression Management in Black and African Americans

George Mason University’s College of Public Health has been awarded a National Institutes of Health (NIH) AIM-AHEAD program grant to develop an AI chatbot targeting depression management for Black and African Americans. Professor Farrokh Alemi will lead the enhancement of an existing AI tool to better address antidepressant needs for this demographic.

The current AI system recommends antidepressants based on 16,775 patient subgroups, each defined by unique medical histories. The project will assess the accuracy of these recommendations for African Americans by utilizing the NIH All of Us database and existing literature. This initiative marks the first focus on creating an antidepressant recommendation system specifically for Black and African American individuals.

The researchers aim to develop a Knowledge-enhanced Antidepressant Recommendation Dialogue System (KARDS), which will interact with patients to gather necessary information and provide personalized antidepressant recommendations. It will also inform clinicians through point-of-care summaries.

The development team includes Janusz Wojtusiak and Kevin Lybarger from George Mason University. Upon completion, the system will be tested with Black and African American patients. The $70,906 grant from the NIH AIM-AHEAD program seeks to establish partnerships to enhance AI/ML models and electronic health record data.

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