Heleen Riper is a professor and researcher in e-mental health at the VU University of Amsterdam and at the University of Denmark. She's also involved in ehealth research at the Leuphana University in Germany. She's considered to be one of the pioneers of ehealth in the Netherlands.
Heleen's research has focused on three main objectives: on assessing the clinical and cost-effectiveness of ehealth, as well as the implementation of ehealth in practices. For example, Heleen Riper and her colleagues have demonstrated that online treatment can be just as effective as face-to-face therapy to improve symptoms. They've also found that online treatment can be used to prevent mental illness. If you are interested to know more about Heleen's research on ehealth, take a look at some of her publications.
Heleen Riper on the evidence of ehealth
In our interview with Heleen Riper, we asked her to reflect on 15 years of research on ehealth. In part 1 (out of 3) of the interview series, Heleen Riper talks about how the evidence on ehealth is abundant. Watch the video below:
Ensuring validity with evidence
As a supplier of ehealth, we are often asked about the validity of ehealth, and of the Minddistrict platform specifically. There are several things that we do to ensure the validity of our online platform and modules. For example, Minddistrict has established the Global Research Network (GRN). Through the GRN, we involve universities and other research institutions across the world in ehealth research. Minddistrict is also involved in the project Horizon 2020 ICare. It is a European research programme that aims to develop, research and distribute online interventions for people with mental health problems. Minddistrict supports the programme by providing the ehealth platform including CMS (Content Management System). We also help to distribute the interventions to healthcare insurers and providers across Europe.
We believe that we can use evidence from ehealth research to bridge the gap between technological advancement and clinical implementation. Therefore, we aim to continuously update our online platform and modules in line with evidence.
Get in touch
We are ready to take the next step towards revolutionising mental health care. Are you? If you'd like to find out more or have any question, we'd love to have a conversation.
You can also discover more on how the Minddistrict content management system can help you to create your own digital mental health content.