By: Lucy Cesnakova, Program Lead, Digital Medicine Society
Mental health conditions affect nearly 970 million people globally, driving the demand for innovative solutions to enhance diagnosis, monitoring, and care. Sensor-based digital health technologies (sDHTs), like smart rings/watches or smart mattresses, offer a promising path forward by tracking behaviors and physiological signals in real-time to build a holistic view of mental health.
Ripe potential of sensor-based technologies
Our recent collaboration with the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge, commissioned by Wellcome, uncovered key insights into the value and potential of sDHTs for mental health. Among the aspects of mental health with the strongest evidence for accurate measurement are sleep patterns, physical activity, and social interaction—important indicators for conditions like major depressive disorder, anxiety, or schizophrenia. Sensor technologies show promise in detecting early signs of symptom escalation, such as changes in sleep behavior or social withdrawal.
Additionally, real-time behavioral data from sDHTs could support clinicians in making more informed, timely interventions. Despite these promising applications, most evidence comes from small-scale studies, highlighting the need for larger, more diverse research efforts. Equally important is refining sensors and algorithms to capture real-world signals relevant to various mental health conditions. Together, these advancements can accelerate progress toward clinically validated, patient-centered digital measures.
Path forward for sDHTs and medtech companies
The path forward for DHT and MedTech companies requires a commitment to addressing both technological and practical barriers. Companies should focus on building clinically validated solutions that not only demonstrate scientific rigor, but also fit seamlessly into healthcare workflows. It is equally important to involve diverse patient populations early in the development process to ensure solutions are equitable and user-centered. To drive adoption and impact, companies should prioritize:
- Larger scale research and validation: Support larger studies to strengthen the clinical validity of digital measures.
- Collaboration and standards: Work with stakeholders to standardize data elements and harmonize measurement frameworks.
- Accessibility and equity: Address cost barriers, promote inclusive design, and ensure data privacy.
Support towards research and adoption is needed
To improve measurements of the aspects important in mental health (such as sleep, physical activity or social interactions), larger-scale studies generating strong scientific evidence and standardized approaches to data collection and analysis are needed. To advance adoption of sensor-based technologies, the researchers and developers should improve and adapt the algorithms in the respective populations with mental health conditions, or explore completely new sensing modalities.
Lastly, the research and development should happen in a systematic and collaborative way supported by standardized protocols, data elements and approaches. It is important we create infrastructure that supports learning, knowledge sharing and cross-pollination between stakeholders.
The opportunity is clear: With continued innovation and collaboration, sDHTs can transform mental health care. But to get there, we must build on existing progress and address the gaps that remain.
