George Aalbers, Julius März, and Merel van den Berg represented Stress in Action at the MindTech Summit 10th & 11th of October 2024. An invitation-only interdisciplinary event with training sessions and keynotes in the domain of digital behavioural health, organized at Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, by SiA’s prof. dr. Manon Hillegers and well known partner of SiA prof. dr. Loes Keijsers.

In an intimate setting at tech-friendly locations in Rotterdam, PhD and postdoctoral researchers attended a unique programme that combined insights from academia, clinic, and industry, presented by senior researchers from top institutes such as Harvard and Stanford University. The event can be summarized as a glimpse of what the future of mental healthcare might look like and how professionals from different sectors can inspire each other to make that glimpse a reality. The first two days covered training in topics as N=1 experiments, just-in-time adaptive interventions, online reinforcement learning, natural language processing, AI health technology markets, and business models for digital health technologies. Participants collaborated in pressure cooker exercises that focused on developing a product (e.g. an app for managing chronic pain and depression; large language models for clinical practice) and a business model, to be presented at the end of each session, with support from industry experts Evan Hirsch and Amanda Withrow. These exercises generated quite a buzz in the group – not all academics were used to developing ideas in a group under time pressure – and networking opportunities for those who are interested in going beyond their own department.

The final two days consisted of inspiring keynotes that showcased developments in AI in health care (Jeroen Tas, Philips), online reinforcement learning (Susan Murphy, Harvard University), and using AI in clinical practice (Amanda Withrow, Emtelligent; Mimi Winsberg, Brightside Health). Collectively these keynotes made crystal clear the global challenge of improving mental health and the vast opportunities for academia, clinical practice, and industry to collaborate on providing solutions. Collectively, this event brought together an interdisciplinary group of junior researchers and domain experts, showcasing the state-of-the-art and future steps in digital behavioural science.