New App to Defuse Acute Anxiety by BGU
New App to Defuse Acute Anxiety by BGU
April 6, 2026
Dr. Talia Meital Schwartz-Tayri, Head of the AI for Resilience and Social Welfare Lab at BGU
Times of Israel—A groundbreaking artificial intelligence (AI)-powered app, developed by Dr. Talia Meital Schwartz-Tayri, Head of the AI for Resilience and Social Welfare Lab at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), is transforming how trauma is treated in its earliest moments—addressing what experts call the “psychological golden hour.” The app provides immediate, science-backed guidance to individuals experiencing shock or anxiety following traumatic events such as attacks, disasters, or accidents. By offering step-by-step, real-time support through a smartphone, the platform acts as a critical bridge between the moment of trauma and professional medical care, with the goal of reducing the long-term risk of PTSD.
“You need to carry out a series of actions,” Dr. Schwartz-Tayri explained to Times of Israel, “but you yourself are overwhelmed by what you are seeing.” In many cases, the first responders left the event feeling that they had failed to help, which aggravated their own trauma, she added.
Being taken to the hospital creates “maladaptive memory of the event, which contributes towards trauma,” she said. “People remember their helplessness, the journey in the ambulance, the inability to function, the failure to look after the children. If you can bring people back to activity and functioning, their memory of the event changes.”
Already available in English, Hebrew, and Arabic, the app is gaining international attention for its cultural adaptability and global potential. “In the Gulf, where there isn’t the same long-standing culture of trauma preparedness as in Israel, this technology provides an immediate, science-based infrastructure for resilience,” Dr. Schwartz-Tayri noted, pointing to growing interest from countries seeking scalable solutions for civilian emergency response.
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