In line with frugal innovation thinking, many existing capacities of tablets, smartphones and even "dumbphones" can be repurposed to serve diagnostic, monitoring, and therapeutic functions. At the lower end of the scale, researchers at Oxford and elsewhere have shown that SMS and voice-calls can be used to assess mental health status, deliver talking therapies (eg cognitive behavioural therapy) and stimulate behavioural change. Higher-spec devices such as smartphones and tablets can perform the same functions in more user-friendly ways, for instance through multimedia apps, and can also draw on a wider range of sensors and capacities ā eg accelerometers, GPS and camera ā to generate richer data and smarter interventions. The Mobilyze! system developed in Chicago, for example, uses 38 smartphone sensor values alongside user input to predict psychological status and deliver tailored therapeutic interventions for unipolar depression. Mobile mental health already has the capacity to revolutionise the way we evaluate, monitor and treat mental illness, especially in poorer countries where mental health workforces barely exist.
[For more of this story, go to http://www.theguardian.com/hea...al-health-conditions]
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