Principal Investigator Rosalind Picard
Project Website http://www.media.mit.edu/projects/panoply/overview/
In the next year, roughly 26 million Americans will suffer from depression. Many more will meet the clinical diagnosis for an anxiety disorder. While psychotherapies like cognitive-behavioral therapy are known to be effective for these conditions, the demand for these treatments exceeds the resources available. There are simply not enough clinicians available. Access is also limited by cost, stigma, and the logistics of scheduling and traveling to appointments. What if we could crowdsource this problem? Panoply is a crowd-based platform for mental health and emotional well-being. In lieu of clinician oversight, Panoply coordinates therapeutic support from anonymous online workers who are trained on demand. The system utilizes advances in collective intelligence and crowdsourcing to ensure that feedback is timely and vetted for quality.