Protecting users of digital mental health apps

The COVID-19 crisis has uncovered an enduring mental health epidemic globally.

New ethical questions about the safety, efficacy, equity and sustainability of digital mental healthcare – online and through apps – are being raised around the world, and businesses are being held to account over their creation and endorsement of services.

Over 10,000 mental health apps are currently on the market, yet regulations do not fully protect against the sharing of sensitive consumer data or ensure a standard quality of, for example, chatbot psychologists.

The Global Governance Toolkit for Digital Mental Health: Building Trust in Disruptive Technology for Mental Health, launched in 2021 by the World Economic Forum and Deloitte, provides governments, regulators and companies with the tools to protect personal data, ensure high quality of service and address safety concerns with the rise in digital and behavioural mental healthcare.

Between a quarter and half of the global population is affected by a mental disorder at some point in their life. Between 2011 and 2030, the cumulative economic output loss associated with mental disorders is projected to be $16.3 trillion worldwide.

Disruptive technologies – such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, digital reality, blockchain and the cloud – are ushering in a new era for consumers, industries and organizations. There are more than 10,000 mental health apps in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store alone. Many of these 10,000 apps are not currently evidence-based, placing users at significant risk in some cases. Deloitte analysed 190 global high-traction use cases for the toolkit, revealing 89% of the apps are not clinically validated.

The Global Governance Toolkit for Digital Mental Health: Building Trust in Disruptive Technology for Mental Health was developed by the Forum in conjunction with Deloitte to help users address major ethical concerns, protecting consumers, enabling them to assess quality mental healthcare more easily, and helping them make more informed choices about their own mental health.

How can governments and companies that offer mental health apps work together to protect patients in a post-COVID digital world? To answer this question, the Forum and Deloitte created a policy framework and toolkit. It is supposed to guide law-makers towards successful policies on technology and mental health. The toolkit will be used by multiple groups:

In 2020, the New Zealand Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Forum and Deloitte, piloted the toolkit in response to a government inquiry into mental health and addiction – showcasing the urgent need for remote mental health services presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The final framework created by the Ministry of Health covers mobile apps and online tools and is driven by guiding goals intended to reflect the needs of people in New Zealand.

So far, testing of the framework with select mental health apps has revealed gaps in quality and improvements needed to help users more effectively self-manage their mental health. However, it has also shown that the guidelines are meeting the needs of locals, with suggestions that the approach should be expanded to include all health conditions. More lessons from the New Zealand pilot are included in the report.

The toolkit features pilots from the United States of America, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

The toolkit was launched at the Forum’s Global Technology Governance Summit 2021, in partnership with Japan.

Companies can download the report to apply analysis and learnings to existing mental health apps and services, or digital services in development. Regulators, health systems, and innovators are encouraged to join the project by piloting the governance models.

Businesses can help shape the future of mental health technologies responsibly, via the Centre for Health and Healthcare.