Digital biomarkers and digital phenotyping in mental health care and prevention

Abstract

Biomarkers are physiologic or pathologic characteristics that can be objectively measured and evaluated as indicators of biologic processes, or biological responses to therapeutic interventions. Traditionally, psychiatry has suffered from a relative paucity of these, with no lab tests or medical devices available for the diagnosis or monitoring of mental health disorders. The widespread adoption of personal digital devices including smartphones and wearables allow to retrieve, record and store large amounts of user-generated data that have been hypothesized to play as “digital biomarkers” - intended as a new type of medical information that can produce actionable insights into the biological state of individuals, just as “normal” biomarkers, but collected through digital tools.As well described by Onnela in 2015, digital biomarkers can define a digital phenotyping characterized by a “moment-by-moment quantification of the individual-level human phenotype in situ using data from personal digital devices,” in particular smartphones and mobile devices. Simpler said, digital biomarkers, can provide a comprehensive representation of people and patients' functioning. Their use in health research, prevention and practice is particularly relevant in the field of mental health being mental disorders highly heterogeneous in nature and over time. In the next years these novel ways of measuring mental health status will provide observations and perspectives into disease that were unavailable before and which will fruitfully inform personalized prevention and care. The presentation will introduce the concept of digital biomarkers and digital phenotyping, it will provide the state of the art on their identification and use in the field of mental health and will discuss the way forward to ensure their potential is exploited through effective collaboration between clinicians, public health researchers and the tech world in a joint effort to promote population well-being.