Lead: A/ Professor Niranjan Bidargaddi
This project focused on harnessing digital technology to improve the way that healthcare services are provided to people with a mental illness. The first tool developed was MINDtick- a smartphone application designed for the early detection of a relapse or decline in functioning associated with a variety of mental illnesses. The main aim of the pilot trial, conducted in the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network, was to collect smartphone sensor data from a sample of individual’s currently experiencing mental illness. The collection of this data was to develop machine-learning algorithms that would be able to identify certain behavioural characteristics within phone use that could be used to alert a treating clinician to a patient’s possible decline. This application is now poised for larger scale trials commencing in South Australia in 2019.
The Actionable Intime Insights (AI2) application was the second platform developed, and aimed to explore whether the use of patient’s Medicare and PBS data held in My Health Record could unveil more sufficient ways for clinicians and other healthcare professionals to provide optimal health care to patients with a serious mental illness. The AI2 trial aimed to gauge the feasibility and potential efficacy of using an innovative, digital data analytics application to support healthcare professionals in providing more effective and undemanding ways of monitoring, managing and treating patients with a serious mental illness, as an indication for the subsequent large-scale intervention trial in 2019.
Ultimately, both the AI2 and MINDtick platforms are part of a broader initiative to integrate multiple health data sets to create a unique mental health registry for South Australia.
Further MRFF funding will see this project extended into 2019/ 2020.