Beyond non-inferior: how telepsychiatry technologies can lead to superior care

Abstract

Telepsychiatry refers to the use of technology to support the remote provision of psychiatric services. Discussions of this technology have often focussed on the use of video conferencing in place of in-person visits and how such care is found to be non-inferior to traditional care. New developments in the fields of remote-sensing and digital phenotyping have the potential to overcome the limitations inherent in remote visits as well as the limitations of current outpatient care models more generally. Such technologies may enable the collection of more relevant, objective clinical data which could lead to improved care quality and transformed care delivery models. The development and implementation of these new technologies raise important ethical questions.

Keywords:

• Telepsychiatry
• digital phenotype
• remote sensing
• behaviorome
• digital biomarker

Disclosure statement

Dr. Zulueta reports no conflicts of interest. Dr. Ajilore reports serving on the advisory board of Embodied Labs and Blueprint Health, being a cofounder of KeyWise, and being a consultant for Quartette Health.