MentalTech I Use: doppel Vibration Wristband for Energy, Focus & Calm
Lately, I have been using what is probably the most analog of digital health wearables I use. The doppel is a wrist-worn wearable that creates a silent vibration on the inside of your wrist, mimicking a heartbeat, they call it a “lub-dub”, and eliciting focused and calming effects in the body and mind. It does […]
SuicideTech: Enhancing Suicide Prevention and Postvention
The World Health Organization, as early as 2019, reported that close to 800,000 people die due to suicide every year. That is 1person every 40 seconds. Suicide is the third leading cause of death in 15-19-year-olds. 79% of global suicides occur in low- and middle-income countries. Ingestion of pesticide, hangings and firearms are among the most […]
Balanced Digital Content Diets are Key to Resilience
As we continue to roll out and evolve our StressTech Literacy Program with its consideration of digital lifestyle and how, we can better leverage such in our journeys to achieve and maintain healthier stress levels. We see three components of digital lifestyle as devices, channels and content that we favor in our regular use of […]
StressTech & COVID-19: Why You Should Care!
At The Digital Mental Health Project, we work to increase the public’s literacy regarding how everyday digital technology can support healthier stress levels. Here we want to talk about how, and why this literacy is so important in this current COVID-19 crisis. StressTech Implications of COVID-19 The COVID-19 situation is one where the lack of […]
WHO Digital Health is focused on Mental Health!
In my MPH studies, I have been exposed to the work of the World Health Organization (WHO) more than ever based on the program’s focus on global mental health. It was the WHO’s global mental health reports that actually inspired me to pursue my MPH studies. As a digital health strategist, I watch with interest, the […]
Mental Health Radio Network hosts dMHp!
Recently I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Mental Health Radio Network (MHRN). a network of over 70 podcasts on a broad number of topics related to mental health ranging from 1st responders to addiction to autism to politics to spirituality to suicide to teens to veterans to business to creative arts […]
Digital Mental Health Gatherings: More Than You Think & A Key to a Global Digital Mental Health Community (Updated February 8, 2020)
As we’ve done this research, it has been really encouraging to me to discover that professionals interested in this topic of digital mental health regularly get together in symposia, innovation challenges, hack-a-thons, conferences, etc., to present research, network and discuss trends & solutions. We are so jazzed about these trends that we have created a […]
Apply This!: Clinically Meaningful Mental Health App Use Behaviors that Impacts Depression
An emergent theme in this blog is related to research that delineates different models and categorizations related to how mentaltech is being adopted. Historically, we have blogged about such in these posts: HCP Adoption Levels Model Cultural Tailoring of Teletherapy StressTech Adoption patterns and insights This post, I summarize findings of a paper “Clinical Meaningful […]
StressTech Literacy Series: Using DigitalTech to Achieve Healthier Stress Levels is Launched!
True to our intention to continually develop educational offerings that enable a responsible adoption of MentalTech, we have developed and released our StressTech literacy series. Different from our forthcoming MentalTech literacy series, StressTech focused on technology applications that achieve healthier stress levels. It’s focused on wellness versus illness. It targets caregivers, workers, and students, who are […]
Why Don’t We Have Simplified Data Privacy Labels Yet!
As I continue to research this topic of data privacy concerns as a barrier to mentaltech adoption, I have found proposals for a simplified format in much the same way as we have simplified food labels. One is a 2006 paper from the Center for Information Policy Leadership about multilayered privacy notices. The other is […]
MentalTech for Refugee Situations: A Force Multiplier for Mental Health Interventions Delivery?
Recently while reflecting on the almost daily news of the growing refugee crisis emerging in many places around the world and the prospect of its growth owing to economic, climate and military dislocation, I wondered about how mentaltech is being leveraged in this context. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, as of […]
AnxietyTech Conference “MentalTech Wearables Talk”
So aside from the great value of attending AnxietyTech, back in August 2019, I had the further honor of being able to deliver a talk on MentalTech Wearables, a mental tech area near and dear to my “gadgeteer’s heart. This was the 3rd time I have delivered this talk and the first time in about […]
AnxietyTech 2019: Nice Mix of Mental Health Advocacy & MentalTech
I had the extreme privilege and pleasure of attending and speaking at the 2nd annual AnxietyTech Conference in NYC on August 23, 2019. This conference’s attendance was majority developers and UX designers with a healthy representation of consumers, advocates and researchers also. There were two tracks. One track focused on stories of the lived digital experiences of what […]
The Positive Effects of “Cultural Tailoring” in MentalTech: A Study Summary
As I have ongoing conversations with colleagues about digitally mediated mental health interventions, a continuous theme that comes up is how to customize interventions for diverse audiences based on criteria like gender, socio-economic status, ethnicity, regionality, technographics, etc. As I read studies ongoing, I am always looking for examples that address this question, and appreciate […]
Pure-play MentalTech Investment Funds: Emergent Enablers in this Space
Pure-play Investors In my getting around in MentalTech circles talking with founders and implementors, I am often asked the question, “Do you know any venture capitalists who are focused on digital mental health. I have, for a long time, found these entities elusive in the ecosystem. I am happy to say that in the […]
Apply This!: Levels of Adoption of eMental Health Model
I recently came across this article by Milou A Feijt, et. al., in the Journal of Medical Internet Research titled “Perceived Drivers and Barriers to the Adoption of eMental Health by Psychologists: The Construction of the Levels of Adoption of eMental Health Model”. Here I am summarizing this model for its relevance, and because such […]
MentalTech I Use: Spire Stone: Breath Tracker & Trainer
My last post about how I use Mental Health Chatbots got me thinking about other mentaltech I have used with good success. This post I want to talk about my use of the Spire Breath Tracker. This wearable comes in the form of a stone shaped sensor which fits in the waistband of my pants. The […]
Digital Health Formularies: Digital Health’s Curators & eRx Facilitators?
One of the most vexing risks of the digital mental health space is that of efficacy and safety amid an overwhelming number of choices. I have been heartened to discover an emergent subcategory of services which play a similar role in the digital therapeutics ecosystems, as drug formularies play in the drug therapeutics space. I […]
My Take (#2) on Becky Inkster’s Digital Innovation in Mental Health Conference: What Adoption Takes
At the 2018 Digital Innovation in Mental Health Conference, I attended in mid-July in London, UK, there was abundant discussion about Trust as key to adoption of tech in the mental health space. Reviewing my notes, I am gratified to compile a list of factors that adoption will take. At least for me, it turns out to […]
Embedded Digital Mental Health: Gateway to next wave of adoption?
When we read about digital mental health (DMH) solutions, they are most often in their own manifestations as websites, apps, algorithms, wearables, etc., which require us to adopt new experiences into our present digital lifestyle. While this is acceptable for the pioneers, early adopters and even early majority users of DMH solutions, I suspect that a […]