Dr. Arshya Vahabzadeh is a Harvard-trained physician-technologist specializing in pediatric and adult psychiatry, and family medicine. As an expert on the use of new technologies for mental health disorders, Dr. Vahabzadeh has over 20 national and international awards and recognized as a “40 under 40” healthcare innovator. He believes that a convergence of clinical neuroscience, data science, and exponential technologies, can result in transformational change for global mental health.

Author Quotes 

Whether you have a clinic or a product you have designed, knowing what the patient’s perspective is in terms of understanding this spectrum and changing your language and how you advertise your services or your product is actually extremely important.

People are looking at psychedelics and thinking, could these substances actually enhance psychotherapy?

The number of start-ups in mental health is rising dramatically.

Over AngelList, over 120 new companies have joined the Mental Health market within the past year.

They’re looking at trying to match the right clinician with the right patient, they’re trying to understand how can I use a piece of technology to understand a change in someone’s mood? They’re trying to use these wearable devices

Virtual and augmented reality is going to be really big.

Summary 

This short video clip provides an introduction to Dr. Vahabzadeh’s talk on converging paths in mental health, presented at Psych Scene Symposium for Psychiatrists, ‘Bridging the Mind-Body Gap,’ and held in Melbourne, October 2016.

He discusses computer science and technology where there have been enormous advances regarding miniaturization and what this means for cultural and business innovation, and in genomics and brain science, he provides an insight into how neuroscience links with computer science through machine learning and big data analysis.

He begins his talk with a question of when a different brain becomes a disordered one, and how a person’s identity is important when providing care and for how they will interact with you as a professional.

Briefly introducing the topic of psychotropics and nutraceuticals as a means of augmenting psychotherapy in the treatment of depression, Dr. Vahabzadeh moves on to discuss the dramatic rise in mental health startup companies in the US and Australia.

He concludes with a discussion of how technology is being used to understand a change in someone’s mood in order to build a product that people want, and how virtual and augmented reality will make a considerable impact in medicine in the near future.

Take-Home Points

1. Virtual and augmented reality is predicted to play an important role in psychiatry.
2. Understanding the patient perspective is vital to providing the best care.
3. Clinicians, technologists, and neuroscientists are all involved in the treatment of mental health.

Quiz

Learn more

1. From Apps to Systems in Mental Health Assessment and Management – Dr. Arshya Vahabzadeh
2. Bridging the Mind-body Gap – Digital and Neuroscientific Approaches Q&A – Dr. Arshya Vahabzadeh
3. Technology Advancements in Psychiatry – Part 2 – Dr. Arshya Vahabzadeh
4. Technological Advances in Psychiatry – From Couch to Cloud by Arshya Vahabzadeh
5. Frontiers of Psychiatry – Digital and Neuroscientific Approaches By Dr Arshya Vahabzadeh
6. The Digital Conceptualisation of Depression – Dr Arshya Vahabzadeh