Provo, Utah-based Canary Speech has partnered with maternal mental health platform VillageFor to integrate its AI-powered vocal analysis into VillageFor’s voice journaling feature, according to a news release shared with Becker’s.
The integration went live Oct. 1. Women who record a voice journal entry can now receive a Canary Speech wellness assessment based on vocal characteristics captured in that entry. The companies position the assessment as a daily or weekly self-check-in, not a diagnostic tool.
The feature is available as an add-on to VillageFor’s free My Village app and is included in its Village Plus premium subscription.
Postpartum depression affects nearly 1 in 8 mothers, and more than half go untreated, according to government statistics cited by the companies.
VillageFor supports women across nine stages of motherhood, from trying to conceive and pregnancy through postpartum, pregnancy loss and infant loss. The app already offers postpartum depression screening using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, daily mood check-ins, journaling and anxiety management tools.
“Maternal mental health isn’t static, and how someone is feeling can change from one day or week to the next,” said Henry O’Connell, CEO of Canary Speech.
Christy Davis, co-founder and CEO of VillageFor, said vocal biomarkers add a new layer to the platform’s clinical screenings and mood tracking. “A woman may say she’s fine, while her voice can carry signals that tell a more complex story,” Ms. Davis said.
The partnership also extends to VillageFor’s #AskHerTwice campaign, which launches Oct. 10 for World Mental Health Day. Canary Speech will participate in an in-person launch event for the initiative.
Canary Speech markets its voice biomarker technology to health systems, payers and pharmaceutical companies, and recently launched Canary Ambient, an API for real-time voice analysis during patient-clinician conversations.
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