Latest news with #GemmaSharp
The Age
5 days ago
- Health
- The Age
‘It gave me hope': How a single AI session put Kelly on a path to eating disorder recovery
Thirty-three-year-old Kelly has struggled with an eating disorder for most of her life. But it's only in the past few years, with the help of AI, that the tide started to turn. As a child, Kelly, who is using a pseudonym for privacy reasons, developed Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), meaning she significantly limited the volume or kinds of food she consumed. A former ballet dancer, she says the culture around exercise and disordered eating also contributed to the development of anorexia. Kelly was part of the trial for a world-first artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, called Eating Disorder Electronic Single-Session Intervention, or ESSI for short. The chatbot's lived experience videos and the opportunity to talk to a neutral party to arrive at a diagnosis were unlike anything she'd experienced in the healthcare system before. 'Anytime I have tried to seek help, I was really invalidated,' she says. Certain behaviours, like purging without bingeing, meant she slipped through the cracks. Loading 'It [ESSI] gave me hope,' says Kelly, who is now in treatment. Professor Gemma Sharp, founding director of The Consortium for Research in Eating Disorders, led the development of the chatbot, and says the main impetus for its design is the long wait times, exacerbated after COVID, patients faced before accessing clinical treatment. The ED ESSI™ chatbot was originally developed at Monash University and is now owned and managed by Sharp.
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Health
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘It gave me hope': How a single AI session put Kelly on a path to eating disorder recovery
Thirty-three-year-old Kelly has struggled with an eating disorder for most of her life. But it's only in the past few years, with the help of AI, that the tide started to turn. As a child, Kelly, who is using a pseudonym for privacy reasons, developed Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), meaning she significantly limited the volume or kinds of food she consumed. A former ballet dancer, she says the culture around exercise and disordered eating also contributed to the development of anorexia. Kelly was part of the trial for a world-first artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, called Eating Disorder Electronic Single-Session Intervention, or ESSI for short. The chatbot's lived experience videos and the opportunity to talk to a neutral party to arrive at a diagnosis were unlike anything she'd experienced in the healthcare system before. 'Anytime I have tried to seek help, I was really invalidated,' she says. Certain behaviours, like purging without bingeing, meant she slipped through the cracks. Loading 'It [ESSI] gave me hope,' says Kelly, who is now in treatment. Professor Gemma Sharp, founding director of The Consortium for Research in Eating Disorders, led the development of the chatbot, and says the main impetus for its design is the long wait times, exacerbated after COVID, patients faced before accessing clinical treatment. The ED ESSI™ chatbot was originally developed at Monash University and is now owned and managed by Sharp.
