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Bringing digital mental health to where it is needed most

Mental health technologies, such as apps, clinical texting, social media platforms and web-based tools, have arrived. Channelling these resources to help people with serious mental illnesses, clinicians in need of support, and people in low-and middle-income countries will have the most impact on the global burden of mental illness.

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Correspondence to Dror Ben-Zeev.

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D.B.-Z. has an intervention content licensing agreement and provides consultation to Pear Therapeutics. D.C.A. is a co-founder with equity stake in a technology company, Lyssn.io, LLC, focused on tools to support training, supervision and quality assurance of psychotherapy and counselling.

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Ben-Zeev, D., Atkins, D.C. Bringing digital mental health to where it is needed most. Nat Hum Behav 1, 849–851 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0232-0

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