Accelerator alumnus company Limbic gain Class IIa UKCA medical device status

Limbic, an alumnus DigitalHealth.London Accelerator company, have developed Limbic Access, a psychological assessment tool that can predict mental health disorders with an accuracy rate of 93%. The platform recently achieved Class IIa UKCA medical device certification – making it the first and only AI mental health chatbot in the world to earn this status for its clinical effectiveness, safety and risk management.

The certification confirms that Limbic Access, which uses sophisticated machine learning to continuously improve the quality of its digital assessments and conversations, can be safely incorporated into the psychological therapy pathway to support patient self-referral – driving significant efficiencies to support overstretched clinicians and improving patient outcomes.

Limbic Access can classify the eight common mental health disorders treated by NHS Talking Therapies (IAPTs) with an accuracy of 93%, further supporting therapists and augmenting the human-led clinical assessment.

Its certification comes as NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services are experiencing significant capacity challenges in the face of record demand – with latest data showing a 21.5% increase in people accessing NHS talking therapies services over the last year (1).

Dr Ross Harper, co-founder and CEO of Limbic, said: “This is a landmark moment for mental healthcare, as it provides strong evidence that our psychological assessment software – the first in the world to gain this level of certification – is a safe and clinically effective way to augment the therapy process within mental health services at a time when such support has never been more needed. Limbic recently completed the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator, which has been very helpful in getting a better understanding of the needs and challenges faced by the NHS IAPTS.”

130,000 NHS patients have so far accessed psychological therapy using Limbic’s AI mental health chatbot, making it the most widely used solution of its kind in the NHS. UKCA auditors, SGS, reviewed clinical evidence generated from more than 60,000 referrals and found that when compared with standard referral methods such as telephone calls and online forms, Limbic Access helped deliver:

• 53% improvement in recovery rates
• 45% fewer changes in treatment, due to increased triage accuracy
• 23.5% reduction in assessment time – a saving of 12.7 minutes per referral
• 18% reduction in treatment dropouts
• 13% reduction in wait time for assessment
• 5% shorter wait time for treatment

Limbic is running a free webinar on Thursday 9th February at 1pm, on the subject of ‘Improving ADSM completion rates to support IAPT service delivery and patient outcomes’. Led by Ben Carrington, director of special projects at Limbic, the session will spotlight how AI tech can be safely used to deliver more effective and accurate assessments and cover the differences between Class I and Class II medical device certification. To sign up for this webinar, visit https://access.limbic.ai/.

(1) NHS Digital press release: https://digital.nhs.uk/news/2022/latest-nhs-digital-figures-show-21.5-rise-in-number-of-people-accessing-talking-therapies-statistical-press-release#:~:text=News-,Latest%20NHS%20Digital%20figures%20show%2021.5%25%20rise%20in%20number%20of,22%2C%

Limbic is part of the sixth cohort of the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator programme. The DigitalHealth.London Accelerator is a collaborative programme funded by two of London’s Academic Health Science Networks – UCLPartners and the Health Innovation Network – MedCity, CW+ and receives match funding from the European Regional Development Fund