SelfEcho, a company applies technology in creative ways to enhance well-being, mental health and productivity, is launching its new mobile mental health platform designed to transform how clinicians track patient progress in between therapy visits. The Mobile Therapy system is a web-based dashboard and mobile application that collects patient data on an ongoing, voluntary basis that clinicians can utilise to monitor progress, accelerate diagnoses and enhance patient treatment. In addition, the Mobile Therapy system provides practice management tools for clinicians.
"Based on our research and preliminary results from the Mobile Therapy pilot study, it's clear that a significant data gap exists regarding patient well-being in between therapy sessions," comments Dan Gilbert, a professor of psychology at Harvard University and senior scientific director at SelfEcho. "Mobile Therapy aims to narrow this gap by providing clinicians with actionable information about what's happening to and with their clients during the time between appointments, within a centralised mobile platform designed to improve mental healthcare."
Clinicians can use for Mobile Therapy by visiting www.mobiletherapy.com where they can sign up for the service through a simple registration process. Mobile Therapy charges a flat monthly fee of $50 per month, which allows clinicians to enroll an unlimited number of patients.
SelfEcho launched a pilot study of its Mobile Therapy system in early October, in which selected, licensed clinicians from various mental health sectors participated. Preliminary feedback from the pilot study indicates that the system and its features provide significant advantages to clinicians and their patients.
"Mobile Therapy helps me make informed diagnoses, better plan for treatment, and track progress," comments Dr. Lauren Guy, a licenced wellness coach and clinical psychologist, and president of the Santa Barbara Psychological Association. "Clients are generally responsive to this tool. Even those who are less technologically savvy can use this because it's easy to navigate and easy to teach. I think the biggest part of this is having clients feel invested in their treatment."
SelfEcho's Mobile Therapy is designed to improve mental health care through mobile technology by collecting patient data in a scientifically validated manner, which is then analysed by psychology-based algorithms. Clinicians invite patients to utilise the system and then customise each user's account based on the patient's condition and treatment plan. In full compliance with HIPAA requirements, Mobile Therapy collects data actively and passively using smartphone sensors, experience sampling surveys and third-party sources. Mobile Therapy is the exclusive licensee of the linguistic analysis technology LIWC, based on 20 years of research stemming from Professor James W. Pennebaker's work at the University of Texas at Austin.
Over time, clinicians can view metrics from Mobile Therapy's centralized dashboard that enables them to more efficiently diagnose, empirically track patient progress, identify triggers and make more informed decisions about treatment planning. The dashboard also provides clinicians with HIPAA-compliant note-taking tools and other features to digitise administrative duties of mental health practitioners. Future enhancements to the Mobile Therapy system will include a session-scheduling module.
According to a recent national survey commissioned earlier this year by SelfEcho, mental health practitioners believe mobile technology applications geared to mental healthcare treatment have the ability to improve patient care and practice management. More than half of survey respondents (66 percent) believe that being able to obtain additional data on clients using mobile technology would improve their ability to treat them. Furthermore, 68 percent of clinicians surveyed felt that integrating additional data from apps for mental health tracking into therapy practices would help clinicians advance their profession.