Digital Psychiatry SIG Annual Conference 2026 - Technology, Trust and Mental Health: Balancing Innovation with Safety

Talk (09:10 to 09:40): Embedding Lived Experience in Mental Health Policy Development at the MHRA

This presentation explores how lived experience has been embedded throughout a Wellcome-funded programme examining the clinical evaluation and regulation of digital mental health technologies. A central feature is a recorded interview with lived experience advisors who have contributed to the project, sharing their perspectives on meaningful involvement, the value of co-production, lessons learned, and recommendations for future initiatives. Key outputs and findings from Phase 1 will be presented, along with an overview of Phase 2 initiatives: the launch of an AI in Mental Health Sandbox to support safe innovation and regulatory learning, expansion of international collaboration and knowledge-sharing, and exploration of innovative approaches to regulatory engagement and compliance.

Bio: Holly Coole is a Senior Manager for Digital Mental Health at the MHRA and leads a Wellcome Trust funded project exploring the clinical evaluation and regulation of digital mental health technologies. She previously worked as the Patient Safety and Innovation Manager at NHS Supply Chain. Holly has a background in psychiatric nursing, having worked for Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust as a Community Psychiatric Nurse for several years, with experience across community, inpatient forensic, older adults, and child and adolescent mental health services. She has also undertaken training in cognitive behavioural therapy and brings her own insights from lived experience of mental health.

Talk (10:00 to 10:20): A Day in the Life of a Trust CCIO

In this session, Paul will talk about the people, approaches and governance involved in leading digital transformation in an English NHS Trust. He will highlight important relationships to develop, ways of working to deliver benefit, and the regulations in place to manage risk.

Talk (11:20 to 11:40): Digital Tartan: What's New in Scotland?

Scotland has a smaller population (5.5 million) but is half the size of England. Its unique set-up of territorial health boards covering both physical and mental health, supported by some national commissioning, creates distinctive opportunities. This talk gives updates on: 1) the development of regional health and care records and a 'digital front door' for patients; 2) a single national M365 tenancy; and 3) a growing national digital library of policies and guidelines.

Talk (11:40 to 12:00): Governable Agentic AI Architectures for Healthcare

This talk explores how agentic AI can be introduced into healthcare in ways that clinicians can meaningfully direct and regulators can effectively govern. Drawing on lessons from deploying AI across highly regulated sectors, including pharmaceutical manufacturing and medtech, it argues that safe adoption depends less on any single model than on the surrounding architecture. Digital intelligence is becoming abundant, but its capabilities remain uneven and context-dependent. Governable systems therefore require agents to operate on controlled digital representations of care, work within bounded teams that include clinicians as first-class participants, and gain autonomy only through staged, evidence-based and revocable authority. Human interventions, overrides, escalations and outcomes must form part of the auditable system record, providing evidence of meaningful oversight in line with the EU AI Act. The talk concludes by considering what this architecture could offer psychiatry: a way to capture and preserve tacit clinical judgement that rarely enters formal records, while keeping the clinician firmly in command.

Talk (12:35 to 13:05): AI and Mental Health

Dr Hamilton Morrin will speak on emerging evidence regarding the potential impacts of generative AI chatbots on user mental health.