Here is a sneak peek into Chapter 15 of our new book Digital Therapeutics for Mental Health and Addiction: The State of the Science and Vision for the Future (Elsevier Link):

Privacy and security in digital therapeutics

Leysan Nurgalieva (a), Gavin Doherty (b)

(a) Department of Computer Science, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland, (b) School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Digital health products and services (digital therapeutics) are fueling a transformation of traditional healthcare structures, enabling patients to become more proactive in managing their health. However, as digital therapeutics involve the processing of sensitive information—potentially by several entities—security and privacy vulnerabilities inherent to these systems also introduce risks to patients’ data. These risks range from unvetted or intrusive targeted advertising to inferences about an individual’s behavior and health condition. These risks are even more crucial for the mental health domain; hence digital therapeutics designers and researchers must be aware of these risks, apply appropriate procedures for evaluating data practices, and design necessary safeguards. In this chapter, we map the common risks related to the protection of patient data in digital therapeutics, provide pointers for navigation of the relevant regulatory landscape, and outline available evaluation methods and guidelines to address security and privacy risks in digital therapeutics.