History
The SDMH grew out of the Banbury Forum, a meeting held in 2019 with a broad range of representatives, including from healthcare, payers, research, policy, investment, and patient advocacy, to examine the research-to-practice gap in digital mental health in the United States.
The Forum made three recommendations:
- All people experiencing common mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD should have access to evidence-based digital mental health services.
- Reimbursement mechanisms are required for broad implementation.
- Evidence standards are needed to support decision making.
As a big tent organization, SDMH is the only professional organization dedicated to digital mental health research and implementation. As a big tent organization, SDMH brings together members across academic research, healthcare, payers, digital mental health companies, and people with lived experience. SDMH is working to advance digital mental health with organizations involved in the development of reimbursement pathways through legislation, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, and the American Medical Association. SDMH is currently forming diverse workgroups to address the challenges impacting broad implementation of digital mental health in the United States.