A new standard in mental health
Galea began as a research-driven project known as eGRiST, designed to capture and structure the reasoning of mental health professionals. Rooted in decades of academic work, it grew into a trusted tool for assessing concern and understanding mental health complexity.
Today, Galea has evolved into a modern, ethical technology platform — still grounded in expert knowledge but now enhanced by intelligent automation and design. As part of our next chapter, Galea operates under the parent company Xperfecta, continuing its mission to make mental health insight more accessible, accountable, and human.
Beginnings
The origins of what would eventually become Galea trace back to Dr. Christopher (Fif) Buckingham’s PhD research. Originally focused on computer modeling of decision-making — specifically in horse racing — his work sought to capture expert reasoning and simulate it in a system.
Through this, he developed the Galatean model, named after Galatea in the Pygmalion myth, symbolising the "perfect exemplar" rather than the typical one. This foundational idea challenged established theories about how people assess concern and probability, eventually becoming the basis for a new way to capture and apply mental health expertise.
Early years
Fif applied his decision-making model to mental health contexts, first in selecting patients for psychotherapy and later in building a risk screening tool for use in healthcare. This tool, later known as GRiST (Galatean Risk and Safety Technology), began as a paper-based system and evolved into digital form through support from government and health-sector grants. From the early 2000s through the 2010s, GRiST was developed inside academic settings, capturing structured insights from over 3,000 practitioners during years of interviews and validation work. The system offered a unique method for understanding and reasoning about mental health concerns and needs — at a time when digital mental health infrastructure was virtually non-existent.
Renaissance
The real transformation came post-2015, with European innovation funding that required the creation of a company. This marked the formal birth of Galea, although the technology and model had existed for years. Subsequent grants allowed the team to rebuild the system with a commercial structure — enabling proper product development, recruitment, and sales. In 2022, this effort culminated in a full redesign of the technology, reinvigorated leadership, and the transition from an academic research project to a scalable, ethically grounded mental health platform.
In 2024 we brought additional talent onboard and became a member of the Xperfecta family. The work of over 3,000 practitioners continues to underpin Galea’s insights, now enhanced by modern technology.