Digital Mental Health Care: Current Evidence and Key Priorities
Joseph Firth, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom
Optimising Social Connections Across the Life-Course in Real-World Populations: Fundamental Patterns, Trade-Offs, and Digital Solutions
Josh Firth, University of Leeds / Oxford University, United Kingdom
Keynote Lecture
Luca Palmerini, University of Bologna, Italy
Lorenzo Chiari, University of Bologna, Italy
(Cancelled)
Digital Mental Health Care: Current Evidence and Key Priorities
Joseph Firth
The University of Manchester
United Kingdom
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Brief Bio
Dr. Joseph Firth is a UKRI Fellow at the University of Manchester, with a PhD (Medicine) from The University of Manchester. Internationally recognized as one of the most highly-cited scientists in Digital Medicine, Lifestyle Psychiatry and Mental Health, he was awarded the USERN Laureate in Social Sciences in 2022 and named Research.com's #1 "Rising Star" in 2023. A five-time recipient of the Clarivate™ Highly Cited Researcher award (2020–2024), he has published over 300 articles with more than 50,000 citations (h-index = 93), including first-author papers in top journals like The BMJ and World Psychiatry. Dr. Firth also leads the Lancet Commission on Physical Health in Mental Illness, and acts as expert advisor for the World Health Organization’s “Guidelines on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour”. He has also engaged extensively with traditional and online media, with his publications around lifestyle and nutritional approaches to mental illness receiving coverage from >700 news outlets along with televised interviews on Sky News and BBC television. His current research leverages digital technologies and lifestyle medicine to improve outcomes for people with mental illness, and he is currently leading a multi-million £ UKRI-funded project around the implementation of digital lifestyle interventions into youth mental healthcare.
Abstract
The rapid adoption of digital technology across the world has presented a myriad of new interventions for mental health conditions, through smartphone apps, telehealth platforms, and other novel monitoring and therapeutic technologies. This talk provides a systematic overview of current evidence around digital interventions in mental healthcare, examining the top-tier evidence for their efficacy to date, particularly through meta-analyses of RCTs in depression, anxiety, and stress-related conditions. Along with the empirical evidence, the main challenges to their adoption, and strategies for real-world implementation will be discussed. Within this additional consideration will be given to how socioeconomic and digital divides might influence accessibility and efficacy, potentially exacerbating existing health disparities. Following the discussion of current evidence and issues, the presentation will explore how emerging artificial intelligence (AI) applications, particularly large language models and AI-driven chatbots, are set to transform mental health interventions in future. Alongside this, four key challenges and concerns around using these powerful technologies will be presented, with “real life” examples for each.
Finally, the presentation will highlight an emergent opportunity for harnessing digital interventions in order to address the vast physical health inequalities associated with mental illness; discussing how such technologies may be well-positioned to ‘fill the gap’ in physical healthcare for those with mental illness. Considering the disproportionately higher risk for cardiometabolic disorders and related disparities observed in this vulnerable population, Firth’s “e-PHIT Mental Health” research group are currently exploring how mobile health applications, wearable technologies and AI Agents can be used for ‘enhancing Physical Health In the Treatment of Mental Health’. The latest evidence from our early studies on how existing digital tech and online platforms could be used to encourage physical activity, balanced nutrition, and better sleep in youth with mental illness will be presented. Following this, some additional insights from our ongoing research on potential synergies between traditional care approaches and digital solutions will be shared, and the talk will conclude with a commentary on the importance of designing the future of digital mental healthcare with the end-user’s priorities and preferences in mind.
Optimising Social Connections Across the Life-Course in Real-World Populations: Fundamental Patterns, Trade-Offs, and Digital Solutions
Josh Firth
University of Leeds / Oxford University
United Kingdom
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Brief Bio
Dr. Josh Firth holds a PhD in Biology from the Oxford University and is currently a NERC Independent Research Fellow and an Associate Professor at the University of Leeds, and Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University. His research integrates behavioural science, computational biology, and ecology to unravel how individuals interact with one another, their environments and their societies. His work also extends into the digital realm, particularly in the context of considering this as a novel environment where individuals across the life course can engage in social interactions while avoiding social costs such as increased disease risk. Dr Josh Firth’s research is recognised for contributions to both applied and theoretical science, and aims to pioneer interdisciplinary approaches across ecology, epidemiology, conservation, and health science. He has a proven track record in translating fundamental research into real-world impact, such as through computational approaches for to assessing how social networks shape COVID19 spread and mitigation, and through industry work in nutritional health science. Recently, Josh Firth led the Royal Society’s workshop and special issue on the interplay between age and society, reflecting his research interests in understanding social ageing, and harnessing fundamental science and digital innovations for considering social connections. Josh Firth’s research includes a diverse publication record in social networks, computational biology, epidemiology, and health, positioning this agenda at the forefront of research that bridges natural social dynamics with digital approaches and solutions for individual health across the life course.
Abstract
The complex interplay among social behaviour, ageing and contagions is central to various aspects of our current understanding of health and societies, particularly in regard to how digital tools can address these challenges. This presentation synthesizes three interconnected strands of research around these topics, and cumulates in proposing that digital environments can support social engagement among ageing individuals while reducing the typical costs (such as disease) associated with conventional social interactions.
First, drawing on a recently commissioned Royal Society conference and Special Issue on ageing and sociality (Firth et al. 2024 Royal Society Phil Trans B), the talk will present how analyses of social networks in real-world populations reveal a common pattern of social ageing across species. In this context, the talk will discuss how a decrease in social interactions with age can be seen as a fundamental, natural process in diverse social systems, particularly when considering individuals that begin life with relatively robust immune systems and limited access to social information then develop weakening immune systems (and a reduced need for social information) as they age (Woodman et al & Firth 2024 Royal Society Phil Trans B).
Next, the talk will illustrate how new technologies, particularly the fine-scale tracking of human social interactions, have elucidated the relationship between disease risk and social networks. It will draw upon examples using GPS (Firth et al 2020 Nature Medicine) and Bluetooth devices (Pung & Firth et al 2022 Nature Communications) for monitoring human social connections, and demonstrate how social trends may hold across various real-world contexts (Pung & Firth et al 2024 Royal Society Interface) and how these can be used to inform disease control (Firth et al 2020 Nature Medicine).
Finally, the third part of the talk integrate these discussions with the latest research on how the online world is affecting human behaviour across the life-course (Firth et al & Firth 2024 World Psychiatry). It will conclude by highlighting how recent advances present a unique opportunity for ageing individuals to engage in beneficial social interactions while avoiding typical costs (such as infectious disease), which may offer a potential framework for addressing key issues related to social ageing and ageing societies.
Keynote Lecture
Luca Palmerini
University of Bologna
Italy
Brief Bio
Luca Palmerini received the master degree in Computer Engineering in 2007 at the University of Padua, Italy. The title of his thesis was: "Mathematical models for the quantification of microglial activity from PET images of [11C]-PK11195".
Currently, he is attending the second year of PhD in Bioengineering, specializing in "Elaboration of Biomedical signals". His field of work is data mining techniques applied to clinical and biomechanical databases (e.g. Acceleration data from clinical tests in Parkinson's disease).
Predict, Prevent, Protect: The Digital Transformation of Fall Risk Assessment
Lorenzo Chiari
University of Bologna
Italy
* CANCELLED *
Brief Bio
Prof. Lorenzo Chiari is a Full Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Bologna, where he leads research in digital health, wearable sensing, and AI-driven fall prevention. He has been the principal investigator of multiple EU-funded and national research projects, collaborating with leading academic, clinical, and industrial partners to bridge the gap between biomedical engineering and geriatric healthcare. Prof. Chiari has authored numerous high-impact scientific publications and has been an invited speaker at major international conferences on digital health, AI in medicine, and gerontechnology. Since 2022, he has been the president of the board of directors of the "DARE - Digital Lifelong Prevention" Foundation and the PI of the research project under the same name. DARE (2022-2026) is funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research and aims to establish Italy as a leading country in digital prevention.
Abstract
Falls are a major health concern for older adults, contributing to injury, loss of independence, and significant healthcare costs. In this keynote, I will explore how digital technologies are transforming fall prevention, leveraging wearable sensors, artificial intelligence, and remote monitoring.
After a review of the state of the art in this field and its main open challenges, I will focus on presenting my research group's most recent and ongoing work at the University of Bologna, which has pioneered innovative solutions in digital fall risk assessment. Our recent achievements include refining the FRAT-up model, integrating symbolic AI techniques to enhance fall prediction accuracy, and using wearable sensors to monitor movement patterns and physiological signals in real-world conditions for developing innovative digital biomarkers. Additionally, our studies are investigating the role of sleep quality and heart rate variability as predictive markers of fall risk, paving the way for early intervention strategies.
By combining advanced data analytics with clinically validated assessment tools, these developments represent a significant step forward in proactive and personalized fall prevention. The keynote will highlight how these innovations are shaping the future of elderly care and discuss the next frontier in digital health solutions for mobility preservation.