Researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Lahey Hospital and Medical Center developed a tool to help patients find the mental health app that fits them best.
Thousands of smartphone apps have been developed as a cost-effective means of expanding medical care access. Currently, there are over 10,000 mental health apps available in app stores. These apps are not overviewed by the FDA. Determining which apps are safe, effective and right for an individual is overwhelming and difficult.
The team created an online assessment tool to help patients and providers make informed decisions when choosing a mental health app. The new tool does not endorse or recommend specific apps. Rather, it helps users weigh app safety, ease of use and commitment to user privacy.
To develop the tool, the team created a database of mental health apps to find a match for the user and help the user make an informed decision. The tool incorporates concepts from around 1,000 questions from 45 existing and nonstandardized app evaluation frameworks. The tool boils all these questions down into 105 questions with yes or no numeric answers. It provides objective guidance that allows users to sort and filter through mental health apps according to the user’s personal preferences.
The team is still growing the database with more apps and diseases so it can be used with a wider variety of patients.
A paper on this technology was published in npj Digital Medicine.
