Mental Health Goals Digital Workstream

Interested in helping to shape digital mental health innovation in the UK?

As part of the UK Government's Mental Health Goals Programme, the Digital Workstream is running a series of workshops on the 29th and 30th January 2026 at the Wellcome Trust in London.

If you work in industry, NHS, research, clinical services, academia and have an interest in digital mental health innovations, this is for you!

📍 Wellcome Trust, London
📅 Thursday 29 & Friday 30 January 2026
🍽️ Free to attend (lunch provided) – limited places available

Click Here To Register

What is the Mental Health Goals Programme?

The Mental Health Goals (MHG) programme aims to create an innovative alliance between people with mental health conditions – whose views are often not prioritised – and industry – who face unparalleled challenges in mental health R&D – to accelerate precision psychiatry and deliver valuable new treatments that work for those who need them. Within the MHG, a series of workstreams sets out to deliver step changes in infrastructure to support the delivery of healthcare innovation. These include DATAMIND and The Data Observatory; The MHG Industry Alliance Team (Lived Experience Industry Partnership or LEIP and the Innovative Trials Hub); Omics including GLAD; and Digital.

The Digital Workstream

The overarching aim of the digital workstream is to develop sustainable infrastructure and services to support digital innovation in (UK) mental health (services). The workstream is technology and domain agnostic, aiming to build infrastructure that supports broad and diverse forms of innovation in mental health. The workstream aims to identify and address challenges for digital mental health innovators and NHS end-users, including market access and alignment, reimbursement, multi-site clinic-level adoption, clinician-level adoption, patient/service user adoption, long-term patient/service user retention, sustainable investment and scaling pathways, systematic, demand-led innovation decisions.

Meet the Team

Co-Lead

Pauline Whelan

Pauline is Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at CareLoop Health Ltd, a digital mental health company that supports people with serious mental illness. She has worked in digital health for nearly 20 years and is currently Honorary Professor at Swansea University in the UK. She specializes in the design, development and implementation of digital mental health technologies. She was a founding member and co-director of the GM.Digital Unit at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, which supports the use of digital technologies in mental healthcare; she remains a digital advisor to the unit.

Co-Lead

Trina Histon

Trina is the founder of Percolating Health and an internationally recognised expert in digital health, behaviour change, and healthcare innovation. With over 20 years of experience at the intersection of clinical care, psychology, and technology, they bring academic rigour and real-world experience to partnerships focused on truly helping to improve lives. Trina was previously VP of Clinical Product Strategy at Woebot Health and shaped national behaviour change and digital health deployment efforts at Kaiser Permanente.

Programme Manager

Charlotte Stockton-Powdrell

Charlie leads the Digital Health Software team at the University of Manchester and is Co-Director of the GM.Digital Research Unit at GMMH. Charlie is the Operational Lead for the Digital Innovation Workstream of the MHG Programme at the University of Manchester. She has worked in health research for almost 20 years, with more than half of that focused on digital health, and how we can co-design and develop tools to be used across different mental health and physical health domains in research.

Screenshot 2026-01-23 at 11.04_edited.jpg

Programme Manager

Judith Gellatly

Judith is based in the Division of Informatics, Imaging & Data Sciences at the University of Manchester. She has previously managed a variety of multi-centre research trials predominantly focused on improving the outcomes and experiences of adults with mental health conditions including depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. She has also been involved in research studies focused on physical health conditions such as diabetes, asthma, and musculoskeletal pain. 

Programme Manager

Heidi Tranter

Heidi leads the GM.Digital Research Unit at the Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Manchester. She is a Programme Manager for the Digital Innovation Workstream of the MHG Programme. Heidi manages the delivery of research projects which focus on collecting mental health data, and co-developing digital tools to improve mental health care and service delivery.

Screenshot 2026-01-23 at 11.06_edited.jpg

Programme Coordinator

Gilson Tam

Gilson is based at the University of Manchester. Prior to this role, he worked as a Junior Technical Project Officer in the University’s Digital Health Software team, where he supported a range of digital health applications, managed team budgets, organised team and project meetings, and performed system testing to ensure product quality, reliability, and smooth delivery.

Screenshot 2026-01-28 at 10.36_edited.jpg

Work Package Lead

Victoria Betton

Victoria brings over thirty years of experience across the NHS, local government, the third sector, and digital health startups. A qualified social worker and certified coach, Victoria is recognised for her expertise in people-centred design, systems thinking, and digital strategy, with a focus on driving the meaningful adoption of technology in healthcare.

Screenshot 2026-01-26 at 12.17_edited.jpg

Work Package Co-Lead

Dr Aaron Kandola

Digital mental health researcher, Chief Scientific Officer, and commercialisation specialist with experience spanning academia, government, investment, and industry, Aaron has held roles at UCL, Wellcome Trust, Department of Health and Social Care, Zinc VC, juli Health, and Mental Health Foundation, informing a system-wide perspective on developing, funding, and scaling evidence-based health and AI technologies, and strengthening collaboration across sectors.

Work Package Co-Lead

Professor Chris Hollis

Clinician and academic psychiatrist at the University of Nottingham, and founder of the NIHR MindTech HealthTech Research Centre. Chris is an international leader in digital mental health and has advanced the adoption of evidence-based technologies across the NHS and global healthcare systems.

Screenshot 2026-01-26 at 12.22_edited.jpg

Work Package Co-Lead

Barnaby Perks

Implementation Team

Becca Randell

Becca Randell leads children and young people’s work for Health Innovation KSS and NIHR ARC, with extensive experience in evidence‑based mental health improvement. She brings over twenty‑five years of commissioning experience and contributes to several charities and advisory groups.

Screenshot 2026-01-28 at 10.35_edited.jpg

Implementation Team

Jenny Brooks

Jenny is an experienced programme lead and health data analyst with a background across the NHS, voluntary sector and local government. She has delivered projects on health inequalities, social prescribing and community‑led prevention, and also serves as a charity trustee, coach and Action Learning Set facilitator.

Implementation Team

Alessandra Scola

Alessandra is a Programme Coordinator for the Health Innovation KSS team, supporting the organisation’s Digital, Data, and Artificial Intelligence portfolio. She brings experience in project management across both the public and private sectors, including global marketing with blue-chip clients and NHS national programmes.

Industry-Focused Workshop

Thursday 29 Jan 2026, 10:00–16:00

Join international colleagues and industry partners to help shape the UK’s digital mental health landscape. This workshop will focus on opportunities and challenges for innovation, identifying UK priorities, and practical insights on implementing solutions in the NHS.

Hélène Viatge
AppThera

Helene is the co-founder and co-CEO of AppThera, a distribution platform for DTx in France. She has significant experience in the development and commercialisation of medical devices in France and in the UK, whether hardware implantable MD or Digital MD. She has developed such expertise in regulatory compliance, clinical studies, market access and tech adoption through several C-level positions in medtech companies.

Megan Coder
Society for Digital Mental Health (SDMH)

Megan Coder, PharmD, MBA specializes in digital health policy, product assessment, and real-world impact. Her work focuses on enabling decision-makers to evaluate, implement, and scale digital health technologies within and across local and national settings. Previously the Founder and Executive Director of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance (DTA), she is currently serving as Vice President, Board of Directors for the Society for Digital Mental Health (SDMH).

Caitlin Stamatis
Slingshot AI

Dr. Caitlin Stamatis is a clinical psychologist and expert in technology-enabled behavioral health. Dr. Stamatis currently works as Head of Research at Slingshot AI, leading evidence generation on the safety and efficacy of the first foundation model for psychology. She has previously held various clinical research and product strategy positions within digital health and technology companies, including Google, Akili Interactive Labs, and Otsuka.

Danny Kim
WELT

Danny Kim, PharmD, oversees digital medicine development at WELT, a Samsung spin-off digital therapeutics company focused on evidence-based solutions for sleep and mental health. A pharmacist by training, he works at the intersection of clinical science, product, and market access, with experience scaling digital health products across the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Since 2020, he has advised the Korean government on digital therapeutics regulation and reimbursement. Previously, he served on the board of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance (now part of the American Telemedicine Association).

Katrina Laks
Migrevention / Estonian Health Economy Association

Katrina Laks is the CEO and co-founder of Migrevention, creating cutting-edge digital solutions for migraine management. With a background in science and a passion for patient advocacy, she champions Estonia’s digital health innovation through the Estonian Health Economy Association and the first ever nationwide health tech accelerator Health Founders Estonia—driving a future of smarter, more human healthcare you’ll want to hear about in person.

Manjul Rathee
BFB LABS

Manjul Rathee has over 18 years of experience at the intersection of design, technology, and innovation for health and wellbeing. She has served as Chief Executive Officer of BfB Labs since 2017. Before founding BfB Labs, Manjul held a series of influential roles in digital and service design, including Innovation and Service Design Lead at Shift and Senior Designer at Forster Communications, where she specialised in human-centred design and digital engagement for social innovation projects. Alongside her commercial work, Manjul co-founded Eye Heroes, the UK’s first child-led campaign to tackle preventable sight loss.

Nick Hebden
Holmusk

Nick Hebden is the UK Business Director of Holmusk and has over 20 years’ experience partnering with NHS organisations in commercial and operational roles, at GSK, Otsuka and in the digital health scale-up space with Holmusk. Driven by a personal ambition to enable people to live healthier, happier lives and to maximise the opportunities available with the adoption and implementation of health innovation.

Jorge Palacios

Bright Therapeutics

Dr. Palacios drives the research and scientific strategy for Bright Therapeutics, working on leading DTx products such as Recovery Record for eating disorders and Recovery Path for substance use disorders. His focus is on building the evidence base for effectiveness, engagement, and successful implementation of Bright’s products across the world, as well as building successful partnerships with academic and clinical institutions. Prior to joining Bright, he completed his Medical Degree in Mexico City and thereafter his PhD at King’s College London in 2016. He then helped shape and grow the research agenda at SilverCloud Health, through to its acquisition by Amwell in 2021. A global advocate for digital therapeutics, he speaks widely on expanding access to evidence-based digital interventions, and his work has been featured in top academic journals.

Ushma Baros

To Be Confirmed

Digital Phenotyping Workshop

Friday 30 Jan 2026, 10:00–13:00

Digital phenotyping refers to the moment-by-moment quantification of individual behaviour, physiology and environment through data collected from digital devices, typically smartphones and wearables. It aims to collect objective markers of an individual’s health. This workshop aims to explore the potential of digital phenotyping to support mental health research and innovation in the UK. It will consider perspectives on digital phenotyping from a range of key stakeholders (lived experience contributors, industry, researchers, investors) and provide a snapshot of the current digital phenotyping ecosystem in the UK.

Speakers

Richard Dobson
Onsentia

Richard is professor of health informatics, head of department of Biostats and Health Informatics and deputy director of the NIHR Maudsley BRC, as well as cofounder and director of Onsentia and Cogstack. His focus is on the development and application of data and AI for the benefit of patients and the NHS.

Eden Rozenblit

mindLAMP @ Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School

Eden leads implementation and delivery for the mindLAMP platform. Her work focuses on enabling the effective use of the platform in real-world research and service settings, including deployment, configuration, and sustained engagement. Eden works closely with research and clinical teams to address the operational challenges of implementing digital mental health tools at scale.

Aleksandar Matic,
Koa Health

Aleksandar Matic, PhD, is SVP of R&D at Koa Health — a spin-out of Telefónica’s moonshot project Alpha — and a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics. He is a pioneering scientist in digital phenotyping and AI-based behaviour analysis for wellbeing and mental health, with two decades of research experience, 50+ publications, and 20+ patents. He has led teams that have transitioned predictive models from research to deployment in healthcare systems, including the NHS, with a focus on shifting mental healthcare from reactive to proactive.

Alexis Whitton,
Black Dog Institute

Alexis Whitton is Associate Professor and Co-Director of the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Depression Treatment Precision at the Black Dog Institute. She co-developed Australia’s first smartphone tool for depression, used by over 230,000 people, and now leads Project Phonotype, a Wellcome Trust–funded program embedding AI and mobile sensing into trials with 10,000 young people to identify depression subtypes and treatment mechanisms. Her research spans adaptive, sequential, and AI-simulated trial designs.

Mental Health Goals Digital Workstream

Meet the Team

Industry-Focused Workshop

Hélène Viatge AppThera

Megan Coder Society for Digital Mental Health (SDMH)

Caitlin Stamatis Slingshot AI

Danny Kim WELT

Katrina Laks Migrevention / Estonian Health Economy Association

Manjul Rathee BFB LABS

Nick Hebden Holmusk

Jorge Palacios

Bright Therapeutics

Ushma Baros

Digital Phenotyping Workshop

Speakers

Richard Dobson Onsentia

Aleksandar Matic, Koa Health

Alexis Whitton, Black Dog Institute

Hélène Viatge
AppThera

Megan Coder
Society for Digital Mental Health (SDMH)

Caitlin Stamatis
Slingshot AI

Danny Kim
WELT

Katrina Laks
Migrevention / Estonian Health Economy Association

Manjul Rathee
BFB LABS

Nick Hebden
Holmusk

Richard Dobson
Onsentia

Aleksandar Matic,
Koa Health

Alexis Whitton,
Black Dog Institute