Author: josefinhagstrom

This last week on May 25-28, some of us from the ConnectMe team had the opportunity to attend the Medical Informatics Europe conference in Genoa, Italy to present our latest research findings.

At the conference, Maria Hägglund, Josefin Hagström, and Charlotte Blease presented a panel session titled “ConnectMe – When Digital Support Becomes Digital Burden: Connected Mental Health and the Clinician Work Environment”. Despite being scheduled early on the first morning of the conference, the session attracted a strong audience in the main hall.

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Maria opened the session by introducing the topic, outlining why it is crucial to focus on work environment of clinicians in mental healthcare in the context of connected mental health tools.

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Next, Josefin presented preliminary findings from our 21 interviews, highlighting both benefits and risks identified by clinicians. She also introduced what we have come to call the “vicious cycle of clinician burden” (see figure below), a concept that emerged during our efforts to recruit clinicians. In short, as researchers seek to involve clinicians in studies of new, digital tools, both the tools and the research process itself can add strain on an already burdened workforce. This can lead to skewed representations in the data: clinicians with limited capacity may be underrepresented, while those with more flexibility are more likely to participate.

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This is a critical reality to consider for us researchers to consider, and it likely extends to other fields where new tools are being implemented. It is also a perspective that we are actively incorporating into the remaining stages of the ConnectMe project.

Last but not least, Charlotte Blease presented the next steps of ConnectMe, with a particular focus on our upcoming Delphi study. In this phase, we will consult clinicians and other stakeholders to gather new perspectives on how their work environment can be improved.

The session concluded with an interesting discussion that turned out very fruitful for the team. For example, participants raised ideas about the emerging role of AI tools as connected mental health tools, and their potential impact on clinicians. While this topic has been included in our interviews, it was only explored briefly and may be subject of closer investigation in our coming studies.

Overall, we had a very positive experience at MIE2026, and hope to be returning next year with new insights and results from the ConnectMe project!

/ Josefin, Charlotte, and Maria

On 27-28 November, Shweta and Josefin attended The Swedish Conference of Clinical Psychology (SCCP) in Stockholm to present a poster about the ConnectMe project.

The SCCP conference is organized by Karolinska Institutet and focuses on research on various aspects related to psychological treatment. We submitted a poster describing the ConnectMe project, relating our work of exploring the impact of connected mental health tools on clinicians’ work environments. This conference seemed like a great forum to reach mental health clinicians to spread awareness about our project, as well as potentially recruit some participants to the ongoing interview study!

See our poster below:

Over the two days, we were able to connect with numerous clinical psychologists who were intrigued by our topic and eager to share their experiences with digital tools in clinical practice. We were thrilled to gain new insights and perspectives from healthcare professionals across a variety of fields.

The conference was held in a relatively intimate setting, with all sessions taking place in the main room and all participants attending – this made for great discussions. All speakers did an excellent job, and the research presented was truly fascinating. In particular, a keynote by Wolfgang Lutz stood out, focusing on precision in mental healthcare and demonstrating a measurement-based system currently being tested in Germany. The presentation highlighted how data-driven approaches can enhance diagnosis and treatment.

Thank you SCCP for organizing a great conference!

Josefin and Shweta

Inom ConnectMe arbetar vi för närvarande hårt med att rekrytera deltagare till vår intervjustudie. I skrivande stund har vi gjort 18 intervjuer, men vi hoppas att göra minst 10 till. Vi söker fortfarande psykologer och psykiatriker att intervjua. För att delta behöver man ha erfarenhet av att arbeta med digitala tjänster.

Gör en intresseanmälan här!

Intervjun tar max 60 minuter och kan göras på plats i Uppsala eller Stockholm, digitalt via Zoom, eller över telefon. Under intervjun ställer vi frågor om erfarenheter av digitala vårdtjänster, som videokonsultationer, inom vården för psykisk ohälsa. Vi frågar om ämnen som arbetsbelastning, stress och hur digitala verktyg påverkar arbetsmiljön.

Recruitment

As you may know, we are currently in the process of recruiting participants for our interview study. As of now, we have conducted 18 interviews, but are hoping to do at least 10 more. We are still looking for more psychologists and psychiatrists to interview. To participate you must have experience of using connected mental health tools in your work.

Click here to register your interest!

During the interview, we ask questions about experiences with digital healthcare services, such as video consultations, in mental health care. We ask about topics such as workload, stress, and how digital tools affect the work environment.