TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Stacey Shrader Joslin on Jul 28, 2021

A plethora of mental health apps are flooding the market, but there is little evidence to support many of their claims of effectiveness, Harvard Medical School assistant professor John Torous writes in the Harvard Business Journal. As employers look for ways to support employees’ mental health, he and his co-author Elena Rodriguez-Villa, a global researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, outline three points to keep in mind. (1) Apps will not cure anyone and are not an alternative to robust health care coverage at a reasonable price. (2) With hundreds of apps on the market, thorough research is needed. To help evaluate options, the free M-Health Index and Navigation Database offers information on 400 apps across 105 dimensions. (3) If an app is offered, be sure to track impact by checking in with employees on how they're doing — and if they are actually using the tool.