Designing an interactive quality assurance process for digital mental health tools - Verified by Maudsley

As the creation and use of digital tools for mental health grows rapidly, users and organisations struggle to identify well-designed, evidence-based interventions, while high-quality products struggle to stand out. There are an estimated 20,000 mental health-related smartphone apps in the UK (MedCity, 2023), alongside many SaaS platforms, wearables and other technologies.

We are building a quality assessment tool (Verified by Maudsley) aimed at digital mental health products that would provide a kitemark, assurance of quality, and areas for development, based on thorough review using NHS clinical-academic expertise and lived experience of mental health problems. No mental health-specific assessment of this type currently exists, a significant gap in the market for digital MH tool creators, as well as end users for whom quality must be ensured.

This 2-phase 5-month project will bring together NHS, HEI, SME and lived experience partners to deliver a thorough, iterative, user-led and system-aware design process for our tool. Users and system representatives include:

* People with lived experience of mental health problems and digital tools (end users of digital MH tools)
* Clinical academics and subject matter experts in mental health and digital tools (system-aware intermediaries and users)
* HR, People, and Wellbeing managers who may procure tools (system-aware intermediaries and users)
* Creators, designers, and innovators who produce digital mental health tools (users of our assessment service)

The first phase will mobilise our collaborative design expertise and engage user groups to develop our structured assessment framework, building on our existing wireframing, feedback and IP. We will refine the purpose and conception of the framework with our user groups, before focusing on the framework content, criteria, and usage.

Phase two will focus on operationalising and implementing the framework, through the assessment process that owners of digital mental health tools would progress through. Creators, owners, end users, purchasers, subject matter and lived experience experts will come together to help us to iteratively build the assessment process before testing it with early adopters from our own end users (tools owners) and those involved in the reviewing process (subject matter and lived experience experts).

This project will deliver a unique, innovative assessment framework and process that is ready for market and will align with our ongoing commercialisation activities. This work has the potential to deliver major social and economic benefits by driving high-quality, scalable mental health provision across the sector, as well as tangible benefits to end users, their families and communities.