Can Digital Technologies Change Schizophrenia Care?

Abstract

Digital technologies like mobile applications, chatbots, virtual reality, and other technological solutions are already revolutionizing mental health care, including schizophrenia care. Digital mental health interventions are not intended to replace mental health professionals, in fact, they are a contribution to enhance prevention, improve diagnosis, and democratize monitoring and treatment. These systems usually handle large-scale sensitive data and require modern solutions to safely process and store data. Cloud-based services can respond to this challenge, but it is important to be aware of the current technical boundaries as well of dangers of health data handling. This chapter provides a review on the subject, presenting several data-driven applications for schizophrenia care and addressing some concerns such as efficacy, privacy and confidentiality, data security, accountability, engagement, ethical implications, and education and training. Some recommendations on clinical integration are also presented.