Dr. Kane is the co-founder and head of the advisory board at MindTools.io. He is Senior Vice President for Behavioral Health Services of Northwell Health and Professor and Chairman of Psychiatry at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. Dr. Kane has done extensive research in psychiatric illnesses, particularly schizophrenia, and has been the recipient of many research awards in this field.
There are an overwhelming number of e-Health tools now available to help with many mental health and addictive disorder challenges. It is critical to have objective, reliable and valid sources of guidance for the potential application of new technologies when stakeholders are interested in identifying those tools that might be most helpful for their purposes. The Enlight suite of quality ratings for e-Health interventions which are available through Mindtools.io evaluates evidence from a number of different perspectives and sources.
Given the number of e-Heath tools that are now being developed and promoted it is essential for end users and other stakeholders to have access to such evaluations. We hope that our efforts will be useful to individuals seeking help, clinicians, caregivers, researchers, health system administrators and payers.
Since in many cases mental health apps work better when implemented as part of routine treatment, we also aim to provide data about ways to embed eHealth products into mental health care. Working with vendors could be highly valuable and benefit patients by providing increased care at reduced costs. However, such initiatives impose different challenges. Health providers have to understand how to evaluate products and communicate with vendors as well as prepare and execute implementation strategies. Being able to do so will increase the likelihood of the successful utilization of these tools which will benefit both vendors and providers and help to achieve our overall goals of improving access, outcomes and the overall cost-effectiveness of clinical care.