Digital Health Unplugged: How lived experience is shaping mental health tech

On World Mental Health Day 2025, this powerful episode of Digital Health Unplugged delves into the importance of including the patient voice in the development of digital mental health technologies (DMHTs). Podcast host Jordan Sollof is joined by Holly Coole, senior manager for digital mental health at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and Grace Gatera, a lived experience advocate with direct experience of trauma from surviving the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Coole discusses the three-year Wellcome-funded project she is leading, which aims to strengthen regulation and evaluation of DMHTs including apps, digital triage tools and virtual reality software. Joining from Rwanda, Gatera shares her first-hand understanding of mental health problems and the importance of including lived experience voices in digital mental health design and regulation. The two women are working together to ensure that DMHTs - including the use of AI - are effective, safe and take the needs of those who use them into account. Guests: Holly Coole, senior manager for digital mental health at the MHRA Grace Gatera, lived experience advisor from Rwanda with a global perspective on mental health access and the power of tech in underserved communities