Accelerating Digital Mental Health: The Society of Digital Psychiatry’s Three-Pronged Road Map for Education, Digital Navigators, and AI

Abstract

Digital mental health tools such as apps, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence (AI) hold great promise but continue to face barriers to widespread clinical adoption. The Society of Digital Psychiatry, in partnership with
JMIR Mental Health
, presents a 3-pronged road map to accelerate their safe, effective, and equitable implementation. First, education: integrate digital psychiatry into core training and professional development through a global webinar series, annual symposium, newsletter, and an updated open-access curriculum addressing AI and the evolving digital navigator role. Second, AI standards: develop transparent, actionable benchmarks and consensus guidance through initiatives like MindBench.ai to assess reasoning, safety, and representativeness across populations. Third, digital navigators: expand structured, train-the-trainer programs that enhance digital literacy, engagement, and workflow integration across diverse care settings, including low- and middle-income countries. Together, these pillars bridge research and practice, advancing digital psychiatry grounded in inclusivity, accountability, and measurable clinical impact.

Topics

No keywords indexed for this article. Browse by subject →

References

94

[1]

The evolving field of digital mental health: current evidence and implementation issues for smartphone apps, generative artificial intelligence, and virtual reality

John Torous, Jake Linardon, Simon B. Goldberg et al.

World Psychiatry 10.1002/wps.21299

[2]

Stinson J . Ipsos Health Service Report 2024: mental health seen as the biggest health issue. Ipsos; Sep 17, 2024. URL: https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/ipsos-health-service-report [Accessed 14-11-2025]

[3]

Rudd "Digital mental health: the answer to the global mental health crisis?" JMIR Ment Health 10.2196/18472

[4]

Wike R Silver L Fetterolf J Huang C Austin S Clancy L et al. Internet, smartphone and social media use. Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project; 2022. URL: https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2022/12/06/internet-smartphone-and-social-media-use-in-advanced-economies-2022/ [Accessed 22-08-2022]

[5]

Wüllner "Why do psychotherapists use so little e-mental health in psychotherapy? Insights from a sample of psychotherapists in Germany" PLOS Ment Health 10.1371/journal.pmen.0000270

[6]

van Kessel "Mapping factors that affect the uptake of digital therapeutics within health systems: scoping review" J Med Internet Res 10.2196/48000

[7]

Ridout "Clinical use of mental health digital therapeutics in a large health care delivery system: retrospective patient cohort study and provider survey" JMIR Ment Health 10.2196/56574

[8]

Nowels "Predictors of engagement in multiple modalities of digital mental health treatments: longitudinal study" J Med Internet Res 10.2196/48696

[9]

Jardine "Between rhetoric and reality: real-world barriers to uptake and early engagement in digital mental health interventions" ACM Trans Comput-Hum Interact 10.1145/3635472

[10]

Camacho "Assessment of mental health services available through smartphone apps" JAMA Netw Open 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.48784

[11]

Objective User Engagement With Mental Health Apps: Systematic Search and Panel-Based Usage Analysis

Amit Baumel, Frederick Muench, Stav Edan et al.

Journal of Medical Internet Research 10.2196/14567

[12]

Ng "User engagement in mental health apps: a review of measurement, reporting, and validity" Psychiatr Serv 10.1176/appi.ps.201800519

[13]

Gama "Self-help: a systematic review of the efficacy of mental health apps for low- and middle-income communities" J Technol Behav Sci 10.1007/s41347-023-00360-z

[14]

Muñoz "Marketplace and literature review of Spanish language mental health apps" Front Digit Health 10.3389/fdgth.2021.615366

[15]

Faux-Nightingale "Available tools to evaluate digital health literacy and engagement with eHealth resources: a scoping review" Heliyon 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10380

[16]

Ben-Zeev "Clinical technology specialists" BMJ 10.1136/bmj.h945

[17]

Alon "Digital navigator training to increase access to mental health care in community-based organizations" Psychiatr Serv 10.1176/appi.ps.20230391

[18]

Emerson "Feasibility and implementation of depression and trauma-focused mobile apps in integrated primary care clinics: lessons learned from two pilot studies" Fam Syst Health 10.1037/fsh0001001

[19]

Webinars. Society of Digital Psychiatry. URL: https://www.sodpsych.com/webinars-1 [Accessed 14-11-2025]

[20]

Wisniewski "The role of digital navigators in promoting clinical care and technology integration into practice" Digit Biomark 10.1159/000510144

[21]

Malgaroli "Large language models for the mental health community: framework for translating code to care" Lancet Digit Health 10.1016/s2589-7500(24)00255-3

[22]

Reddy "Evaluation framework to guide implementation of AI systems into healthcare settings" BMJ Health Care Inform 10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100444

[23]

Goktas "Shaping the future of healthcare: ethical clinical challenges and pathways to trustworthy AI" J Clin Med 10.3390/jcm14051605

[24]

Operationalising ethics in artificial intelligence for healthcare: a framework for AI developers

Pravik Solanki, John Grundy, Waqar Hussain

AI and Ethics 10.1007/s43681-022-00195-z

[25]

Palaniappan "Global regulatory frameworks for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the healthcare services sector" Healthcare (Basel) 10.3390/healthcare12050562

[26]

A governance model for the application of AI in health care

Sandeep Reddy, Sonia Allan, Simon Coghlan et al.

Journal of the American Medical Informatics Associ... 10.1093/jamia/ocz192

[27]

Ullagaddi "Cross-regional analysis of global AI healthcare regulation" JCC 10.4236/jcc.2025.135005

[28]

van de Sande "Developing, implementing and governing artificial intelligence in medicine: a step-by-step approach to prevent an artificial intelligence winter" BMJ Health Care Inform 10.1136/bmjhci-2021-100495

[29]

Lund "Standards, frameworks, and legislation for artificial intelligence (AI) transparency" AI Ethics 10.1007/s43681-025-00661-4

[30]

Artificial intelligence in healthcare: transforming the practice of medicine

Junaid Bajwa, Usman Munir, Aditya Nori et al.

Future Healthcare Journal 10.7861/fhj.2021-0095

[31]

Crossnohere "Guidelines for artificial intelligence in medicine: literature review and content analysis of frameworks" J Med Internet Res 10.2196/36823

[32]

Scott "Clinician checklist for assessing suitability of machine learning applications in healthcare" BMJ Health Care Inform 10.1136/bmjhci-2020-100251

[33]

Park "Evaluating artificial intelligence in medicine: phases of clinical research" JAMIA Open 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooaa033

[34]

Reporting guidelines for clinical trial reports for interventions involving artificial intelligence: the CONSORT-AI extension

Xiaoxuan Liu, Samantha Cruz Rivera, David Moher et al.

The Lancet Digital Health 10.1016/s2589-7500(20)30218-1

[35]

Reporting guideline for the early stage clinical evaluation of decision support systems driven by artificial intelligence: DECIDE-AI

Baptiste Vasey, Myura Nagendran, Bruce Campbell et al.

BMJ 10.1136/bmj-2022-070904

[36]

Lekadir "FUTURE-AI: international consensus guideline for trustworthy and deployable artificial intelligence in healthcare" BMJ 10.1136/bmj-2024-081554

[37]

Hernandez-Boussard "MINIMAR (MINimum Information for Medical AI Reporting): developing reporting standards for artificial intelligence in health care" J Am Med Inform Assoc 10.1093/jamia/ocaa088

[38]

Jagtiani "A concise framework for fairness: navigating disparate impact in healthcare AI" J Med Artif Intell 10.21037/jmai-24-438

[39]

Stade "Readiness evaluation for AI-mental health deployment and implementation (READI): a review and proposed framework" Technol Mind Behav 10.1037/tmb0000163

[40]

Golden "The framework for AI tool assessment in mental health (FAITA - Mental Health): a scale for evaluating AI-powered mental health tools" World Psychiatry 10.1002/wps.21248

[41]

Sherwani SK Khan Z Samuel J Kashyap R Patel KG . ESHRO: an innovative evaluation framework for AI-driven mental health chatbots. SSRN. Preprint posted online on Jun 19, 2025. [doi: 10.2139/ssrn.5254332] 10.2139/ssrn.5254332

[42]

Desage "A revised framework for evaluating the quality of mental health artificial intelligence-based chatbots" Procedia Comput Sci 10.1016/j.procs.2024.10.356

[43]

Schwabe "The METRIC-framework for assessing data quality for trustworthy AI in medicine: a systematic review" NPJ Digit Med 10.1038/s41746-024-01196-4

[44]

van der Vegt "Implementation frameworks for end-to-end clinical AI: derivation of the SALIENT framework" J Am Med Inform Assoc 10.1093/jamia/ocad088

[45]

Ji "Evaluation framework for successful artificial intelligence-enabled clinical decision support systems: mixed methods study" J Med Internet Res 10.2196/25929

[46]

A Multidisciplinary Survey and Framework for Design and Evaluation of Explainable AI Systems

Sina Mohseni, Niloofar Zarei, Eric D. Ragan

ACM Transactions on Interactive Intelligent System... 10.1145/3387166

[47]

Benchmarking, ethical alignment, and evaluation framework for conversational AI: Advancing responsible development of ChatGPT

Partha Pratim Ray

BenchCouncil Transactions on Benchmarks, Standards... 10.1016/j.tbench.2023.100136

[48]

Standing on FURM Ground: A Framework for Evaluating Fair, Useful, and Reliable AI Models in Health Care Systems

Alison Callahan, Duncan McElfresh, Juan M. Banda et al.

NEJM Catalyst 10.1056/cat.24.0131

[49]

Muley "Risk of AI in healthcare: a comprehensive literature review and study framework" AJMAH 10.9734/ajmah/2023/v21i10903

[50]

Foundation metrics for evaluating effectiveness of healthcare conversations powered by generative AI

Mahyar Abbasian, Elahe Khatibi, Iman Azimi et al.

npj Digital Medicine 10.1038/s41746-024-01074-z

Showing 50 of 94 references

Metrics

7

Citations

94

References

Details

Published: Nov 27, 2025
Vol/Issue: 12
Pages: e84501-e84501

Authors

J

John Torous

K

Kathryn Taylor Ledley

Department of Pediatrics, McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) , Houston, TX , USA

J

Jason Bantjes

Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Research Unit South African Medical Research Council Cape Town South Africa

L

Laura Ospina-Pinillos

Cite This Article

John Torous, Kathryn Taylor Ledley, Carla Gorban, et al. (2025). Accelerating Digital Mental Health: The Society of Digital Psychiatry’s Three-Pronged Road Map for Education, Digital Navigators, and AI. JMIR Mental Health, 12, e84501-e84501. https://doi.org/10.2196/84501

Accelerating Digital Mental Health: The Society of Digital Psychiatry’s Three-Pronged Road Map for Education, Digital Navigators, and AI

You May Also Like