Meet Dr. Yare Alemu: Psychologist, Innovator and Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dr. Yare Alemu and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Yare, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
The foundation of TQI is based on Dr. Alemu’s experience as a psychologist and behavioral health administration in the publicly-funded sector for more than 15 years. These experiences include running a sizeable behavioral healthcare organization for 2.5 years; during this period, Dr. Alemu has been a subject matter expert in the areas of best practices in mental health treatment outcomes and and quality of care. Also, Dr. Alemu’s experience in a state-wide effort to address quality and cost for clients receiving services in the publicly-funded sector has further clarified the gap in the system of care contributing to disparities in outcomes. The reason for unacceptable disparities in mental health treatment outcomes for children from low-income communities is the lack of highly trained therapists. By in large, therapists are the least trained to provide treatment for the population that is the most severe. I have been in this system of care as a student, a Psychologist, researcher, and administrator for the last 20 years. I am highly motivated, and this has been more than a passion for me; I know how it feels to grow up with scarcity and limited resources. My team is dedicated to taking a deep technology to a community that has gotten limited attention from innovators and investors.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
TQIntelligence is a mental health software startup developing a solution for youth from low-income communities. We leverage the emerging science of Speech Emotion Recognition and AI to enable payers and providers to collaborate to deliver affordable quality mental health care. TQI’s innovation augments low-skilled therapists’ clinical capabilities to improve their therapeutic effectiveness; addressing the stubborn disparities in treatment outcomes requires an augmented intelligence platform that enables a multi-stakeholder collaboration. TQI has been focused on building highly innovative technology while modeling a public-private collaboration, to impact mental health treatment outcomes for youth from low-income families. Clarity AI’s digital health platform, including Machine Learning analytics, supports therapists to use data when it matters the most. The foundational model of TQI’s digital behavioral health innovation contains several variables. Most importantly, a measurement-based system to frequently quantify, track, and predict the level of emotional distress severity and age-appropriate level of functioning. Our technology is focused on measuring emotional distress severity (negative emotions) that transcends diagnosis is precipitated partly by trauma. The severity of the emotional/behavioral disturbances in this ecosystem is complicated by social determinants of health. Measuring these symptoms accurately, regardless of the diagnosis, is essential to improve treatment outcomes.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Ethiopian and Persian restaurants that serve Hookha

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My mother who passed recently; my wife and two kids have been supportive and understanding of the burden of building a software business. My brother and sisters without their support I would not be here

Website: https://www.tqintelligence.com/
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/yared-alemu-ph-d-341a8979
Twitter: @TQIntelligence
Youtube: https://youtu.be/kUexszTrteg