title: Mobile Tele-Mental Health: Increasing Applications and a Move to Hybrid Models of Care.
abstract: Mobile telemental health is defined as the use of mobile phones and other wireless devices as applied to psychiatric and mental health practice. Applications of such include treatment monitoring and adherence, health promotion, ecological momentary assessment, and decision support systems. Advantages of mobile telemental health are underscored by its interactivity, just-in-time interventions, and low resource requirements and portability. Challenges in realizing this potential of mobile telemental health include the low penetration rates of health applications on mobile devices in part due to health literacy, the delay in current published research in evaluating newer technologies, and outdated research methodologies. Despite such challenges, one immediate opportunity for mobile telemental health is utilizing mobile devices as videoconferencing mediums for psychotherapy and psychosocial interventions enhanced by novel sensor based monitoring and behavior-prediction algorithms. This paper provides an overview of mobile telemental health and its current trends, as well as future opportunities as applied to patient care in both academic research and commercial ventures.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, Davis, 2230 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95817, USA. TMHreview@stevenchanmd.com.
authors.forename: Steven Richard
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program, Boston, MA 02215, USA. jtorous@bidmc.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Torous
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, Davis, 2230 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95817, USA. ladson.hinton@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu.
authors.forename: Ladson
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hinton
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, Davis, 2230 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95817, USA. peter.yellowlees@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yellowlees
keywords: ecological momentary assessment; mental disorders; mobile; psychiatry; smartphone; technology; telemedicine; telemental health; telepsychiatry; videoconferencing