Young Innovator Interview with Santosh Patapati | By Aarin Bothra, Innovation World
At just 15 years old, Santosh Patapati, a 10th-grade student at Panther Creek High School in Texas, USA, has made remarkable strides in addressing a global challenge. Santosh developed DepScope, a groundbreaking machine learning solution for diagnosing depression using remote clinical interviews. This innovative approach combines multimodal neural networks and large language models to provide an objective, cost-effective, and highly accurate tool for clinicians.
The inspiration behind DepScope stems from the escalating global mental health crisis. With over 300 million people affected by depression and alarming increases in suicide rates, the need for better diagnostic tools is critical. Santosh identified a key issue: traditional diagnostic methods are often subjective, costly, and prone to misdiagnosis, with error rates as high as 54%.
DepScope’s innovative architecture leverages advanced machine learning to analyze clinical interviews, offering clinicians an unbiased tool to aid in diagnosis. Unlike many AI-driven systems, DepScope prioritizes transparency. It not only delivers a diagnosis with confidence levels but also explains its reasoning, ensuring that clinicians retain ultimate control over the decision-making process. The platform is designed as a web application, ensuring accessibility for healthcare professionals worldwide.
“Students need to recognize the importance of mental health and how widespread it is in our world.” This belief drives Santosh’s passion for innovation and his commitment to raising awareness about the mental health crisis.
Santosh’s journey to develop this advanced technology was not without challenges. The high costs associated with using closed-source models, such as GPT-4, during development were a significant hurdle. Demonstrating incredible dedication, he took on a part-time job to fund his project. Despite these obstacles, his passion for innovation and his commitment to addressing a critical global issue kept him focused.
Looking ahead, Santosh envisions refining and improving DepScope’s architecture. His goal is to publish the model in an open-access journal to foster collaboration and encourage further advancements in the field. In line with his belief in open science, he has chosen not to patent or copyright his work, aspiring instead to make it a foundation for future innovations.
Santosh’s ultimate aim is to integrate his model into real-world diagnostic pipelines. To achieve this, he plans to pursue a related project requiring Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval and seeks collaboration with institutions capable of supporting his vision.
Santosh’s exceptional achievements earned him the distinction of Top Innovator at the 2024 U.S. National Innovator Challenge. His dedication to addressing critical global issues, combined with his innovative approach, highlights the profound potential of young minds to drive meaningful change in the world.
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