Chris Whitehouse, a political consultant and expert on medical technology policy and regulation at Whitehouse Communications, and a Trustee of the Bios Centre for bioethics highlights a new survey on mental health digital tech.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have launched a call for evidence to evaluate the impact of resources developed under the Wellcome-funded Digital Mental Health Technologies (DMHT) programme. The survey opened on 5 November 2026 and will remain open until 26 February 2027.
The initiative seeks feedback from a wide range of stakeholders, including developers and manufacturers of digital mental health technologies, healthcare professionals, researchers, policymakers, regulators, people with lived experience of mental health conditions, carers and members of the public.
According to the MHRA and NICE, the survey forms part of the programme’s Phase 1 evaluation and aims to assess how the resources have been received and used across the sector. The organisations are particularly interested in understanding whether the materials have influenced users’ knowledge, confidence, decision-making and professional practice.
The resources were developed to support the safe development, regulation, evaluation and adoption of digital mental health technologies, including mental health apps and other digital tools. Findings from the survey will help determine whether the Phase 1 outputs have achieved their intended objectives and will inform the future direction of Phase 2 of the DMHT programme.
Stakeholders are encouraged to participate regardless of whether they have engaged extensively, minimally or not at all with the existing resources. The MHRA and NICE say the feedback will help identify strengths, highlight areas for improvement and shape future work to improve the safety and effectiveness of digital mental health technologies.
The survey can be found here.
The Author used AI in preparing this article. Comments upon or questions about this article can be addressed to chris.whitehouse@whitehousecomms.com.
