
- Vol 33 No 2
- Volume 33
- Issue 2
Digital Psychiatry: The Year Ahead
This will be a busy year as the role of new digital tools in medicine converge to offer novel opportunities to clinical care.
TECHNOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY
With the rising interest in mobile and connected technologies, this is an exciting time to serve as the 2016 Digital Psychiatry Section Editor for Psychiatric Times. This promises to be a busy year as the roles of new digital tools converge to offer novel opportunities for clinical care. The focus will be on trust and data security, as well as efficacy and clinical outcomes data, as digital psychiatry matures from theoretical potential toward clinical reality. A foundation of trust and an evidence base with real data will be key areas for the field going forward.
Privacy and transparency
We already know how much information we can collect from smartphone apps and sensor technologies as well as how much of it can be stored. But will patients trust technology enough to share their mental health concerns?
The power of the patient-doctor relationship is in part due to strong confidentiality laws that protect health care discussions and data. Given how sensitive psychiatric patient information can be, perhaps it is not surprising that a
To begin to address this problem, we can expect to see efforts on 2 fronts. First, connected technologies are beginning to better encrypt data and increase data security measures. But a focus on data security alone is not enough. A parallel theme will emerge toward greater transparency in how health data are collected, stored, and used. In fact, a failure to focus on trust can undermine an entire technology platform. In October 2015, the entire UK National Health Service App Library was taken offline after it was discovered that many of the featured apps were not secure and
Practical matters >
Practical matters
Last year we saw numerous examples of technology companies that claimed endless possibilities for technologies-such as apps and sensors-for patient care. Recent literature reviews of the evidence base of apps for depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia demonstrate how scarce high-quality clinical data currently are.4,5
Evidence for efficacy is largely lacking across the board. However, we will begin to see more clinical studies and evidence as patients and clinicians look beyond marketing and ask the simple question: where are the data?
The future
As Editor in Chief of
Editor’s note: The staff at Psychiatric Times would like to thank
Disclosures:
Dr Torous is a Clinical Fellow in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Senior Resident at the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program in Boston. Twitter:
References:
1. Ghandi M, Wang T. Digital Health Consumer Adoption: 2015. RockHealth.
2. Sunyaev A, Dehling T, Taylor PL, Mandl KD. Availability and quality of mobile health app privacy policies. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2015;22:e28-e33.
3. Marley J, Farooq S. Mobile telephone apps in mental health practice: uses, opportunities and challenges. B J Psych Bull. 2015;39:288-290.
4. Firth J, Torous J. Smartphone apps for schizophrenia: a systematic review. JMIR mHealth uHealth. 2015;3:e102.
5. Torous J, Powell AC. Current research and trends in the use of smartphone applications for mood disorders. Internet Interv. 2015;2:169-173.
Articles in this issue
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Introduction: An Essential Part of the Mental Health Evaluationover 9 years ago
New Insights Into Narcissistic Personality Disorderover 9 years ago
Comorbid Clinical and Personality Disorders: The Risk of Suicideover 9 years ago
Does Genius Equal Madness?over 9 years ago
A Dearth of Psychiatric Bedsover 9 years ago
Amy: The Frenzy of Renownover 9 years ago
Positive Psychiatry: An Interview With Dilip V. Jeste, MDover 9 years ago
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