Rosalind Picard, professor at MIT Media Lab and chief scientist of its health monitoring platform spinoff Empatica Inc., also saw transformative potential for digital health, particularly in the field of mental health.

“In 2024, clinical wearable device technology, powered by AI, is predicted to revolutionize mental health care by personalizing treatment strategies, enhancing patient-clinician conversations, and potentially preventing many cases of mental illness. This transformative technology enables real-time monitoring of symptoms, provides objective data beyond traditional clinician interviews, and can estimate changes in symptom severity,” she said.

“The potential of wearable data and AI goes beyond treatment; it can also predict and be used as a preventive measure against mental illness, shifting our current ‘sick-care’ system to a proactive ‘health-care’ system. Furthermore, by allowing individuals to self-monitor their mental health and detect symptom changes early, it can significantly expand the reach of limited mental health resources, making services more accessible, and bridging the gap in mental health care. The technology also helps identify who needs clinical visits and when and enables better monitoring and tailoring of effective treatments.”