By Brinda Patel
Correspondent
After time spent playing basketball together, Julian Soni and Ansh Kulkarni decided to team up again to compete in the annual Mayo Business Plan Competition.
In the midst of juggling school and work, they created Nari, an app that helps psychiatrists and mental health clinicians treat patients struggling with anxiety and depression by using screentime data to monitor digital addiction and propose interventions if needed.
“The name Nari is rooted in the Japanese word ‘to become,’” Kulkarni said.
Soni, a junior public health major, had wanted to compete a year before, and tried this time with the help of Kulkurani. Kulkurani, a senior biology major, helped Soni form a concrete plan, and put in the long hours and commitment to kickstart Nari.
This was more than an idea itself, so it was hard to find someone last year that had the same vision and same work ethic as me,” Soni said. “We both work and have different classes, so we’d have a lot of late working nights. There were weeks in a row of just working straight almost every day into the night to make it happen.”
Both winners said creating Nari was more than just about placing first, it was built on real problem solving that can make an impact in the long haul, despite artificial intelligence trying to solve problems with chatbots.
“It was always made with the intent of strengthening the connection between a clinician and their patient,” Kulkarni said. “With AI and other technological developments that are happening, there is a real push to alleviate the bird of mental healthcare. It is mental healthcare in particular where the human touch is incredibly important.”
Both Soni and Kulkarni wanted to be intentional about making a tool that supports that connection. Nari helps patients get in touch with a clinician to determine what changes have to be made to figure out a solid solution.
They interviewed over 50 clinicians as they were developing Nari through the National Science Foundation. They were surprised by each clinicians approach to treating their patients.
“We did over 50 interviews,” Soni said. “But the one thing that surprised us was that every clinician has a different style of treating patients and we realized it’s less black-and-white and mental healthcare because there’s so many different styles of treatments.”
They said that their prize money will go toward building a HIPAA compliant that has security certifications and accessibility features that are of great quality, adding that they are moving fast and want to continue the same momentum.
“It’s really important to take a step to make sure that it is something that is safe for everyone to use and effective,” said Kulkarni. “It delivers on the results that we are hoping it can deliver on. Building a whole application is what’s going to be done with the money, the Mayo money, and making sure it has the strongest protections of the possible work in place.”
When asked about the long term impact of Nari, they said they are focused on continuing to improve health outcomes with the help of clinicians.
“For both patients and clinicians, the biggest thing we are trying to target is not only helping people be intentional with their lives, but also provide the type of data against them a way to connect their collision, giving them more accountability, and a better lens to exactly what they’re doing,” Kulkarni said.
Kulkarni says he will continue working on Nari post-graduation, with Soni and everyone in their ecosystem.
According to the College’s website, 17 teams competed this academic year and a total of $60,000 in prize money was awarded through the TCNJ Foundation — $30,000 went to Team Nari.
