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ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION – DIGITAL INNOVATION IN MENTAL HEALTH CARE

As the world moved on to a digitalized age, it is inevitable that the healthcare industry has to prepare to adapt to a new generation of delivering medical support in digitalized ways. The same goes for mental health assistance. With direct and timely delivery of care information, diagnosis and treatment, people can be empowered to take proactive steps toward managing their own mental health. However, there is a need to ensure that mental health issues are managed with empathy and sensitivity. With a holistic development plan, healthcare professionals can then ensure that digitalized innovation can positively impact the healthcare landscape.

Digital Mental Health is one of the key research areas the Mind Science Centre (MSC) will be anchoring on in the next few years. To kickstart the cross-disciplinary research blueprint, MSC organised a Round Table Discussion at NUS Alumni House’s Cardamom Board Room on the morning of 24 August 2022.

The academic event welcomed 15 experts which consist of NUS scientists, IT software engineers, mental health clinicians and service planners, to share their perspectives on the matter and how they can potentially collaborate to develop new ideas for research projects. Beyond that, the experts also shared insights on how mental wellness can be promoted through digital technologies, which will help to deliver significant healthcare financial impact.

The key topics discussed include clinical needs, system design, software and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, IT system infrastructure, ethics, medical-legal, and population healthcare financial considerations.

The 4-hours of productive sharing concluded with insights into how the development of new digital mental health services will transform the healthcare landscape in Singapore both from a system and processes perspective. The next steps will be to kickstart a cross-disciplinary research effort to plug into the national healthcare grid, with support from the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation.

If you are keen to collaborate with us on a related research area, please contact Christel at c2chang@nus.edu.sg.