“Any digital therapeutic has to be trialled and shown to be working through outcome measures and that there’s patient acceptance of the treatment as well,” says Katie Holmes, NHS Talking Therapies lead at Birmingham and Solihull mental health NHS foundation trust.
From sleep apps to chatbots: how a new generation of health tech is widening access to treatment The latest digital therapies, prescribed and monitored by clinicians, could make treatment more convenient for patients across the UK.
For those working to accelerate the next generation of mental health treatments that can be delivered at home via a laptop, tablet, or even a smartphone, it felt like the beginning of a new era, where digital tools can be used to fill some of the holes within the existing healthcare system.
Indeed, it may have taken doctors and patients far longer to accept the concept of digital therapeutics had it not been for the far-reaching transition to virtual medicine and digital technologies that was accelerated, as a matter of necessity, by the Covid pandemic.
While NHS Talking Therapies had experimented before the pandemic with digital interventions and online behavioural health programmes, which aimed to address a wide range of issues from anxiety to depression, the reception among patients was mixed.
