Mentally wins Sheba approval for triage

Psychiatric triage is the front door problem in mental health care. Too many people need help, too few clinicians have time, and the first appointment often gets swallowed by note-taking and basic screening. That is the gap Mentaily has been trying to fix with LIV, an AI system built at Sheba Medical Center’s orbit. Now something concrete changed — Israel’s Health Ministry has cleared LIV to perform psychiatric triage as a decision-support tool, which makes it a regulated part of the intake workflow rather than just an interesting pilot. (ynetnews.com) ### What is LIV, exactly? LIV is an AI intake platform that talks with patients through voice or text, sometimes through an avatar, in a format meant to feel like an initial psychiatric interview. The system gathers symptoms, background, psychiatric and medical history, and then produces a structured summary for the treating professional. That summary can include the patient’s main complaints, a differential diagnosis, and recommendations for next steps. (ynetnews.com) ### What got approved? The news is not that Mentaily exists or that Sheba has been testing this idea. The news is that the Medical Devices Division of Israel’s Health Ministry cleared LIV to perform psychiatric triage in Israel. Ynet described it as a first-of-its-kind move in the country, and that matters because regulated approval is what lets a hospital system treat the software as part of real clinical operations. (ynetnews.com)e the diagnosis? No — and that distinction is the whole point. LIV is framed as decision support, not autonomous care. The clinician still makes the clinical diagnosis and treatment plan, and the company has been careful to pitch the system as a way to empower psychiatrists rather than replace them. Think of it less like a robot therapist and more like a very fast, very structured intake assistant that never gets tired and never forgets to ask the screening questions. (ynetnews.com) ### Why does Sheba matter here? Sheba is not just a customer logo. Mentaily was founded out of Sheba’s ARC innovation ecosystem with senior Sheba psychiatrists among the founders, including Prof. Mark Weiser, Dr. Asaf Caspi, and Dr. Daniel Cohen. The product was developed with Sheba’s psychiatry department and outside partners including Microsoft and KPMG. That gives LIV something many AI health tools lack — it was shaped inside an actual (ynetnews.com)sheba-global.com) ### What problem is it trying to solve? Mental health intake is slow, repetitive, and hard to scale. In earlier reporting, Sheba said a first appointment that might take an hour could be cut roughly in half or more because the doctor starts with a detailed report instead of a blank page. That does not create more psychiatrists, but it can increase throughput and help urgent cases rise faster to the top of the queue. (ti([sheba-global.com)orm-can-ease-psychiatrists-workload/)) ### Why now? The backdrop is Israel’s post–October 7 mental health surge. Mentaily was founded in 2024 to address crisis- and trauma-driven demand, and LIV has been positioned for both the general population and security forces or others exposed to prolonged stress. The company says the platform is already being used across hospitals, HMOs, rehabilitation centers, and government organizations, and it raised $3 million in May 2025 to expand. (ynetnews.com) ### What is the catch? The catch is that better triage is not the same as more treatment capacity. LIV can shorten paperwork, standardize intake, and flag severity earlier, but escalations still depend on human clinicians and a strained care system. If the bottleneck is “not enough psychiatrists,” software helps around the edges — but it does not erase the shortage. (ynetnews.com)al-health AI from demo territory into approved clinical triage. But the win is practical, not magical — faster intake, better prioritization, less admin, and humans still in charge. (ynetnews.com)