Refining smart healthcare care for mental health and substance use disorders: A patient-centred, evidence-based approach

Abstract

In this article, we comment on the article by Zhang et al, which explores the familiarity, awareness, and usage of smart medical care and its correlation with mental health and personality traits. The use of intelligent healthcare technologies in treating mental disorders and substance use disorders shows significant promise, but involves certain challenges, such as limited access, low technological literacy, and privacy concerns. These barriers disproportionately affect deprived populations and individuals with severe mental health conditions. We highlight the positive impact of smart healthcare solutions, such as telemedicine and wearable technologies, on patient engagement, remote monitoring, and treatment adherence. To overcome these challenges, we propose strategies, such as improving user-friendliness, ensuring equitable access to digital interventions, enhancing cybersecurity, and integrating smart healthcare into clinical workflows. Training healthcare providers and developing policies to ensure the ethical use of patient data are essential. When implemented thoughtfully, smart healthcare technologies can revolutionize mental health and substance use disorder treatment, improve patient outcomes, and reduce healthcare inequities.

Keywords: Mental health disorder; Smart healthcare; Patient-centered; Substance use disorder; Digital health

Core Tip: This article explores the integration of smart healthcare technologies, such as wearable devices, telemedicine, and electronic health records, into psychiatric and substance use disorders. It highlights innovative approaches, such as ecological momentary assessments and smartphone-based monitoring that enable personalized and proactive care. We discuss challenges, including data complexity, usability, and ethical concerns, and provide recommendations - such as user-friendly designs with gamification, privacy safeguards, adaptive interfaces for mobility issues, and scalable stepped-care models - to enhance engagement. The need for certification, clinician support tools, and two-way patient communication is also addressed, optimizing smart healthcare for better outcomes in mental health and substance use disorder treatment.