Digital Technology for Mental Health: Asking the right questions

The NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) is working with MindTech on a collaborative project which seeks to discover the top 10 research priorities for digital technology for mental health.woman seated with smartphone

MindTech - a national centre focusing on the development, adoption and evaluation of new technologies for mental healthcare and dementia, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) - have created a survey to understand what the most important research questions are in this area.  The survey is open to all, and the organisers are especially interested to hear from people with lived experience of mental health problems and health and social care professionals.

There are numerous potential opportunities to transform mental health care offered by the internet, online services and a wide range of digital technologies, including ‘cutting edge’ innovations such as virtual reality, avatars and robots.

However, more research is needed to understand better the impacts of these new technologies and how to use them in the best way. The ‘Asking the right questions’ project seeks to understand what the most important research questions are in this area.

By working with the James Lind Alliance, the project is using the Alliance's established methodology to gather in the questions and then work collaboratively to decide which matter the most. The top ten questions identified will then be widely publicised so that researchers and research funders will see which areas of research deserve priority attention.

This project is co-funded by: Mental Health Foundation; MQ Transforming mental health through research; NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre; McPin Foundation; Mental Health Intelligence and Leadership Programme, Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust; Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust; Centre for Assistive Technology and Connected Healthcare, University of Sheffield; Nesta, mHabitat; University Counselling Service, University of Sheffield.


Tags: Mobile health - Patient and Carer Involvement and Engagement - Informatics -

By NIHR Maudsley BRC at 6 Apr 2017, 11:58 AM


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