The Future is Now: How Digital Interventions Could Address the Mental Health Crisis

Mental health digital interventions often involve the use of software programs to deliver evidence-based interventions to treat disorders, such as chronic insomnia, panic, and substance use disorders. They have the potential to increase and expand access and options to care and improve population health and health equity. However, regulatory confusion and reimbursement barriers potentially stand in the way of scalable dissemination and implementation. This program will describe this emerging technology and the evidence supporting its use, it’s potential to increase access to care and improve health equity, and what is being done to address the existing barriers within healthcare.

• Describe what digital therapeutics are and how they are different from wellness apps.
• Summarize how digital therapeutics can expand access and health equity to marginalized populations.
• List the regulatory and reimbursement barriers to full health care implementation for digital therapeutics.

Vaile Wright, PhD