TY - JOUR

T1 - Healthcare professionals’ views on implementing digital health tools in psychosis

T2 - a national survey in the UK

AU - Zhang, Xiaolong

AU - Eisner, Emily

AU - Di Basilio, Daniela

AU - Richardson, Cara

AU - Firth, Joseph

AU - Bucci, Sandra

PY - 2025/6/11

Y1 - 2025/6/11

N2 - Objective: Psychosis is a severe mental health problem and a huge public health challenge, but treatment is often delayed and inefficient. Digital health tools (DHTs) can support healthcare delivery and facilitate self-management. This study aimed to thoroughly understand staff members’ views and opinions on implementing DHTs to ensure such tools target unmet needs, are acceptable and maintain patient, service and public trust. Methods and analysis: A bespoke survey was developed to capture key issues surrounding implementation and acceptability of DHTs in SMI and rolled out nationally online to mental health staff working across 31 National Health Service sites in the UK. Results: We received 352 completed surveys. The results showed that most staff (74.2%) would like to implement DHTs in clinical practice. Regarding digital remote monitoring, staff felt less comfortable about passive sensing versus active symptom monitoring and felt less comfortable about tracking service users’ behaviours or whereabouts than tracking feelings or general health. Discussion: To our knowledge, this is the first national survey investigating staff views on digital mental health in psychosis in the UK. This study revealed new understanding of staff views on using DHTs in psychosis in general and using smartphone apps and wearables for remote monitoring and passive sensing specifically. Future studies are needed to optimise implementation strategies to address the barriers for technologies that have demonstrated feasibility, acceptability, usability, safety and effectiveness.

AB - Objective: Psychosis is a severe mental health problem and a huge public health challenge, but treatment is often delayed and inefficient. Digital health tools (DHTs) can support healthcare delivery and facilitate self-management. This study aimed to thoroughly understand staff members’ views and opinions on implementing DHTs to ensure such tools target unmet needs, are acceptable and maintain patient, service and public trust. Methods and analysis: A bespoke survey was developed to capture key issues surrounding implementation and acceptability of DHTs in SMI and rolled out nationally online to mental health staff working across 31 National Health Service sites in the UK. Results: We received 352 completed surveys. The results showed that most staff (74.2%) would like to implement DHTs in clinical practice. Regarding digital remote monitoring, staff felt less comfortable about passive sensing versus active symptom monitoring and felt less comfortable about tracking service users’ behaviours or whereabouts than tracking feelings or general health. Discussion: To our knowledge, this is the first national survey investigating staff views on digital mental health in psychosis in the UK. This study revealed new understanding of staff views on using DHTs in psychosis in general and using smartphone apps and wearables for remote monitoring and passive sensing specifically. Future studies are needed to optimise implementation strategies to address the barriers for technologies that have demonstrated feasibility, acceptability, usability, safety and effectiveness.

KW - Health Services Research

KW - Smartphone

KW - Telemedicine

U2 - 10.1136/bmjdhai-2025-000005

DO - 10.1136/bmjdhai-2025-000005

M3 - Journal article

VL - 1

JO - BMJ Digital Health and AI

JF - BMJ Digital Health and AI

SN - 3049-575X

IS - 1

M1 - e000005

ER -