Mobiletype Australia

Article

mobiletype is a mobile-phone program developed by the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute to help doctors monitor and treat depression in 14 to 24-year-olds, tracking mood, stress, coping strategies, alcohol and cannabis use, exercise and eating patterns through regular questions sent to a participant’s phone. Responses are analysed on a website to produce an individual report for the treating doctor, and a successful pilot led the Telstra Foundation to award the institute’s Centre for Adolescent Health a $285,000 Social Innovation Grant to run a Victoria-wide randomised control trial with 200 participants. In the pilot, more than 90% of doctors said the reports gave them a better insight into their patients’ mental wellbeing, and 81% of patients felt they understood their own mental health better as a result.