Chris Hannay
The Toronto Globe and Mail
Originally published 21 AUG 25
As new digital tools powered by Al raise fears of misinformation, a Canadian startup has gone the other way: Using technology to help patients with severe mental-health illnessesperform reality checks of their hallucinations.
The digital health app, called A4i (which stands for "App for Independence"), was created by software developer Amos Adler and Sean Kidd, a senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. The company was spun out of CAMH and is now being adopted by some mental-health hospitalsin Canada and the U.S., including the Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care in Ontario and the Riverside University Health System in Southern California.
The hallmark feature is an auditory hallucination detector, for which the company got a patent in 2023. A patient can use the app to record sounds around them and, by answering prompts, help sort out whether what they are hearing is real or imagined.
Dr. Kidd said the inspiration for the feature came from a patient. The young man had schizophrenia and was experiencing persistent, distressing auditory hallucinations. He'd bring audio recordings taken in his apartment to sessions and ask Dr. Kidd if he could hear sounds such as voices or yelling. Dr. Kidd usually couldn't.
That led the psychologist to look into what phone-based tools might be available for such patients - he couldn't find any.
This is not an endorsement, but for educational purposes only.
