Technological revolution in mental health

At MMC, we believe there will be a shift from tech-enabled mental healthcare to data-driven mental healthcare.

Challenges associated with mental health were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic – with depression and anxiety going up by more than 25% in the first year of the pandemic alone. However, the need for social distancing and remote working also accelerated digital change and technology was quickly hailed as the answer we needed. Today, there is an “urgent need to transform mental health and mental health care” (WHO), and disruptive technology offers a tremendous opportunity to help accelerate and enable this transformation.

We have seen an era of digital innovation bringing tech-enabled health services to the forefront through telehealth, which connects a doctor or therapist with a patient through a video call. We have also seen the rise of consumer apps promoting mental health awareness and routine stress-reducing solutions.

Fundamentally, we believe there will be a shift from tech-enabled mental healthcare to data-driven mental healthcare.

CHARLOTTE BARTTELOTPRINCIPAL, MMC VENTURES

Through connected devices, mobile phones, and other wearable technology, we are gathering more data on how we act, behave, speak, or learn than ever before. This data will be paramount to how we monitor, diagnose, treat, and even understand a broad spectrum of mental disorders in future.

We have explored the mental health landscape, how technology has shaped the industry to date and the technologies that will be the driving force in future to be effective in improving clinical outcomes.

Download the full report here.