New tests, new tools: mobile and connected technologies in advancing psychiatric diagnosis

Abstract

Mental health is an area of growing interest in the digital health space. Mobile and connected technologies offer new tools that can potentially aid in both the diagnostic and interventional aspects of psychiatric care. To understand the potential of these digital tools in psychiatry, this paper offers an overview of the development, current research, clinical use cases, and next steps necessary to realize the potential of digital health in mental health. Focusing on smartphones’ and wearable sensors’ ability to advance clinical data collection via multiple domains: self-report, behavioral, and physiological, we explore opportunities and challenges in translating these technologies into clinical care tools that can advance how we understand and approach mental illness.