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Getting to know PLOS Mental Health: Digital Mental Health

PLOS Mental Health Meet Your Editor Mental Health PLOS Mental Health
A line of 4 small, different coloured stone figuresCredit: Pixabay

We continue our ‘Getting to know PLOS Mental Health‘ blog series with Section Editor Professor S. Craig Watkins. Professor Watkins, who is based at The University of Texas at Austin, leads our Digital Mental Health Section alongside Professor Mowafa Househ at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar. In this blog, we learn more about Professor Watkin’s experience and interest and his hopes for the journal.

Please tell us a little about yourself.

[CW] I am a social scientist who studies the relationships that humans form with digital technologies such as computers, the internet, smartphones, social media, and artificial intelligence.  In my view, these relationships are dynamic and complex and reflect the degree to which humans invest energy, creativity, time, and cognitive labor into these technological systems. 

Dr S Craig Watkins

Currently, I direct the IC2 Institute and serve as lead Principal Investigator for the Good Systems Grand Challenge at the University of Texas at Austin.  Broadly speaking, this work focuses on what is generally characterized as Ethical Artificial Intelligence. More specifically, our research focuses on various aspects of Health AI, bias in AI, working with stakeholders to build safe and responsible AI systems, and AI and the future of work in the healthcare sector.

What are your main areas of interest?

[CW] My main area of interest focuses on Digital Health.  I am especially interested in how we design digital health solutions that lead to clinical innovation and better health outcomes. This work has focused on the challenges in using large language models to build mental health support for mothers dealing with postpartum depression; working with large data sets to better understand which non-medical drivers of health outcomes may be predictive of major depressive disorder; and probing the challenges of deploying Health AI systems in underserved environments.  In our work we think a lot about how to build digital health platforms that are responsive to the needs of the populations they intend to serve.  As a result, we spend considerable time collaborating and thinking with healthcare practitioners to learn more about the challenges they face and how digital health solutions can be designed to deliver more relevant impacts and better health outcomes.

Why did you agree to join PLOS Mental Health as a Section Editor?  

[CW] We are all familiar with the mental health crisis that is gripping populations all around the world.  There is widespread consensus that the number of people who need mental support will continue to grow and far outpace the ability of mental health professionals to respond to the demand for services.  Mental health is health.  It not only has implications for the individuals who suffer; it also has implications for their families, communities, and society.  We need evidence-based research and knowledge to help develop innovative solutions for the mental health crisis. I joined PLOS Mental Health because I believe it serves as a platform for building a global community and body of knowledge that advances our understanding of the mental health crisis. And while mental health outcomes are complex social, medical, and biological phenomena, building a global resource where research methods and knowledge can be shared can have real-world impact.

I joined PLOS Mental Health because I believe it serves as a platform for building a global community and body of knowledge that advances our understanding of the mental health crisis. And while mental health outcomes are complex social, medical, and biological phenomena, building a global resource where research methods and knowledge can be shared can have real-world impact.

What kind of submissions would you like to see in the Digital Mental Health section? 

[CW] There seems to be no end to the number of digital mental health solutions that are created for consumers.  The gap between the number of people who need mental health services and the inadequate number of people to deliver those services will make digital mental health platforms a vital resource. Unfortunately, most of the digital health solutions available to the public—think mental health apps—are not driven by science or research. I’d like to see studies that demonstrate the efficacy of digital mental health technologies via rigorous and peer-reviewed research. Moreover, we need submissions that probe some of the more complex elements of digital mental health. Let me cite three examples. 

1) We need studies that help us understand the role of digital and health literacy in digital health experiences. That is, how does literacy impact the deployment of digital health solitons to mitigate the mental health crisis?

2) Digital health technologies like artificial intelligence can help identify the underlying mechanisms and hard to see patterns in  the relationship between the medical, social, and behavioral features that impact mental health outcomes. Studies that shed light on these patterns will be incredibly valuable.   

3) Studies that probe how to design digital mental health solutions with, rather than for, those in need of mental health services can help us build interventions that are more viable and relevant, and, as a result, more likely to be trusted and adopted.  

What is in the pipeline at the moment in your team that our readers may be interested in?

[CW] Our team is actively engaged in two projects that may be of interest to the PLOS Mental Health community. We are currently looking for clinicians who integrate AI-based technologies into their clinical practice to learn more about the role of AI in healthcare.  We would greatly appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with clinicians and researchers who are using AI as part of their delivery of mental health services.  In another project, we are interested in partnering with software engineers and data scientists who are thinking about the frontiers of digital health and mental health. We are building a digital health platform to better understand the social, medical, and behavioral factors that impact health outcomes, including mental health.

We are currently looking for clinicians who integrate AI-based technologies into their clinical practice to learn more about the role of AI in healthcare.  We would greatly appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with clinicians and researchers who are using AI as part of their delivery of mental health services

PLOS Mental Health is thankful to Dr Watkins and all of our Section Editors, Academic Editors and Editors in Chief (Charlene Sunkel and Professor Rochelle Burgess) for their time, expertise, and drive to shape this journal.

You can take a look at some of our existing Digital Mental Health publications:

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