Providing Patient Context to Mental Health Professionals Using Mobile Applications

The quantified-self movement entails self-tracking of physical activity, often using wearable devices and mobile applications. In parallel, mobile applications focusing on mental health are increasingly popular, and they often rely on active user input to track the user progress and to deliver feedback and motivation. In this paper we discuss the potential benefits of bridging these two distinct yet highly relevant application domains. We argue for the benefits of combining explicit (user-provided) and implicit (devicecollected) data sources in the context of mental health care. We argue that this combination allows for improved methods to observe patients’ lives, and thus provide a more in-depth overview of their progress. This may enable mental health professionals to establish more personalised and adaptive care plans. Author