TRENDS
care, while also enabling accelerated data
capture for clinical research purposes.
As such, data-driven therapy may not
only improve patient recovery outcomes,
but also widen access to treatment.
“Tech is democratizing mental health
by making it more accessible for everyone,”
Womble explains. “The old-school
method of therapy, where you make an
appointment weeks in advance and travel
to see a therapist in his or her office for
45 minutes, just doesn’t work for everyone.”
At the Institute for Creative Technologies
at the University of Southern California,
researchers are looking into whether
the solution to offering more accessible
therapy resides in virtual therapy. Dr. Skip
Rizzo, the institute’s director of medical
virtual reality, and Gale Lucas, research
assistant professor, have developed a
“virtual therapist” called Ellie.
“People prefer opening up to her
instead of a human,” Lucas says. “They
disclose more to the virtual therapist than
a real therapist.”
Despite Ellie’s not being a “real” therapist,
patients respond well to her in large
part because she’s a piece of technology.
“People feel safer with a machine,” Rizzo
says. “They aren’t being judged by it.”
CONNECTED MENTAL
HEALTHCARE
As connected devices become ubiquitous,
mental health experts expect to see data
play even more of a role in treatment. “As
the face of therapy changes, we will see
more of an influence of big data analysis
and AI extraction,” Rizzo notes.
As he explains, there are currently only
three data points a clinician can analyze in
a therapist context: what patients self-report,
their physiology, and their observable
behavior in the clinical setting.
The next phase for data-driven therapy
will be measuring health data when the
patient is out in the real world, in between
sessions. For example, using existing
wearable technology that collects and
“As the face of therapy
changes, we will see more
of an influence of big data
analysis and AI extraction.”
—Dr. Skip Rizzo, director of medical virtual
reality, Institute for Creative Technologies,
University of Southern California
stores health data, mental health professionals
may be able to determine risk
factors for a person’s well-being.
“There is so much opportunity for ongoing
monitoring,” Lucas explains. “If we
can get data from facial expression, vocal
tone, how much someone exercises—all
these factors are rich, big data to [look
into] predictors of PTSD and depression.”
Data analytics is revolutionizing science
across the board. As this extends
to mental health treatment, it will mean
better access to care for those who need
it the most. As Tablan concludes: “We
now have a data-driven model of what
actually helps patients get better.” ■
09