Can Digital Therapeutics Help Reduce Burnout and Mental Health Distress of Healthcare Workers?

Since the pandemic's onset, many HCPs have reported difficulty developing and maintaining healthy sleep habits. Sleepio, a digital sleep improvement program, employs a web-based application and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to provide coaching that addresses insomnia-related factors such as negative behaviors, emotions, or thoughts.

FREMONT, CA: The COVID-19 pandemic claimed many lives, including those of the world's healthcare workers (HCP). Limited knowledge of the virus, a scarcity of medical and personal protective equipment, an overwhelming number of critically ill patients requiring extreme treatment measures, an even greater number of patient deaths, and severe staffing shortages all contributed to a perfect storm of stress and burnout among those tasked with providing treatment and care.

Health Care Workers Experiencing Burnout

Burnout is not a new issue, and it has been a concern for all HCPs for decades. According to the findings of a study on Global Health Workforce Labor Market Projections for 2030, there will be a global shortage of 15 million healthcare workers in less than ten years. This shortage could worsen as a result of the number of HCPs who have left their jobs due to burnout.

How can we stop this tide? Through the development of DTx as a treatment not only for healthcare patients but also for healthcare professionals.

Pairing DTx With CBT

While DTx does not replace physicians or psychologists, it does provide another tool for treatment—and it is designed for rapid deployment to patients. More DTx applications are being developed to help clinicians treat mental health disorders, such as the digital application of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which has shown promising results in treating anxiety and depression disorders.

Since the pandemic's onset, many HCPs have reported difficulty developing and maintaining healthy sleep habits. Sleepio, a digital sleep improvement program, employs a web-based application and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to provide coaching that addresses insomnia-related factors such as negative behaviors, emotions, or thoughts. The therapy teaches users how to form positive associations with their sleeping environment and how to establish (and stick to) regular bedtime routines. In a placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial, 75 percent of patients saw improvements in their sleep.

GAIA is a company that provides a variety of solutions, including an online program called deprexis that is used to treat depression. Patients in real-life clinical settings, as well as 14 randomized control trials, show that the program reduces depression symptoms nearly as well as antidepressants.