MA Abschlussvortrag, Jessica Mayer, Ort: Online, Datum: 07.07.2021, Zeit: 16:15 Uhr

With a growing number of people suffering from poor mental health, mental health has become a topic on a multinational scale. Mental illnesses as consequence of poor mental health impose a large burden on public healthcare providers. In this context of needing to provide scalable treatment schemes to meet a growing request for help, this master thesis explores the opportunities of mobile sensing in online therapy. The underlying idea is to collect sensor data through a mobile device to gain insights into the patient’s mental state and environment to provide the right intervention just in time via a mobile device. To understand barriers towards digital phenotyping and its usage for psycho therapeutic purposes, we started with built-in sensors of smartphones as a common mobile device and analysed potential markers of poor mental health derivable through smartphone sensors. These indicators then become part of digital phenotype. Taking the step from analysing and aggregating towards proving help we explored internet- and mobile-based interventions (IMIs) as a potential treatment option. To provide scalable treatment a Mobile Sensing System using smartphones and delivering IMIs just in time was conceptualised. The combination of mobile sensing, digital phenotyping and IMIs is a promising path towards reducing the burden of healthcare providers and patients. Further research regarding markers and factors for the varying effectiveness of IMIs on an individual level could enable the full potential of this combination.