Infiheal Commences Pilot Study with AIIMS
Infiheal is proud to share an important milestone: the commencement of a collaborative pilot study with the National Centre for Assistive Health Technology (NCAHT) at AIIMS Delhi, funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). This marks the beginning of a rigorous, evidence-based evaluation of Healo, Infiheal's flagship AI mental health companion, within one of India's most respected clinical institutions.
About the Study
Titled "Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Chatbot in Improving Anxiety Symptoms Amongst Patients Attending Psychiatric Services at a Tertiary Care Centre: A Randomised Controlled Trial," the study aims to compare the effectiveness of Healo as an AI co-therapist adjunct in reducing anxiety symptoms amongst patients receiving psychiatric treatment, versus those receiving usual care from the AIIMS psychiatry outpatient department.
The study follows a two-arm parallel-group randomised controlled trial design with a pre-post intervention structure, involving 80 participants in total, with 40 in the intervention group and 40 in the control group. Participants in the intervention group will use Healo over a period of 12 weeks, with assessments conducted at baseline, six weeks, and at the end of the study.
Assessment instruments include the GAD-7 for anxiety, the DASS-21 for depression, anxiety, and stress, the MARS scale for medication adherence, a semi-structured questionnaire on user satisfaction, and back-end engagement analytics automatically captured through Healo's platform, covering interaction frequency, duration, and feature utilisation. This combination of validated clinical scales and real-world usage data will produce a thorough and multi-dimensional picture of how Healo performs in a live psychiatric care setting.
Why This Study Matters
The randomised controlled trial is the gold standard in clinical research, designed to produce the most rigorous, unbiased evidence of whether an intervention genuinely works. Conducting an RCT within a psychiatric outpatient setting at AIIMS, one of India's foremost public medical institutions, places this among the most clinically credible evaluations of an AI mental health tool undertaken in the country to date.
Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent and undertreated mental health conditions in India, and AIIMS Delhi's psychiatry services treat patients from across the country, making it a particularly meaningful and representative setting for a study of this kind. Most existing research on AI chatbots in mental health has been conducted in high-income countries or with general populations. This study directly addresses that gap, generating real-world clinical evidence from within India's public healthcare system.
In Gratitude
Infiheal is deeply grateful to Dr. Salaj Rana, Dr. Rajesh Sagar, Dr. Rahul Mathur, Dr. Manu Sharma, and Dr. Nishtha Chawla for their guidance and collaboration in bringing this research to life. Their clinical expertise and commitment to evidence-based innovation in mental healthcare have been central to making this study possible.
