Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Participatory Medicine
Date Submitted: Dec 23, 2025
Date Accepted: Mar 10, 2026
Integrating Data Visualizations Into Digital Mental Health Care for Adults With Anxiety and Depression: Participatory Design and Case Study
ABSTRACT
Background:
Digital phenotyping offers unprecedented opportunities for capturing real-time mental health data through smartphones, yet translating this data into clinically actionable insights remains challenging. While smartphones can generate nearly one million data points per patient per day, healthcare systems have struggled to incorporate even basic ecological momentary assessment data into routine care workflows.
Objective:
This paper presents a model for clinician-facing data visualizations that can be shared with patients to increase understanding of mental health symptoms and enhance shared decision-making. We describe (1) a participatory design process through which visualizations were co-created with clinicians; (2) integration of these visualizations into a Digital Navigator-supported workflow; and (3) a case example illustrating how data visualizations can enhance patient insight and support treatment adjustments
Methods:
This work was conducted within the Digital Clinic program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Fifteen clinicians and three clinical supervisors participated in a participatory design process to develop visualizations meeting clinical workflow needs. Data visualizations were integrated into weekly Digital Navigator sessions following a three-phase model (guide, refinement, autonomy) based on self-determination theory.
Results:
Six visualization types were developed: gauge charts for engagement behaviors, symptom trajectory graphs, correlation matrices linking passive and active data, sleep visualizations, polar/radar charts for multidimensional assessment, and passive-active data integration graphs. A clinical case demonstrates how these visualizations, when delivered through structured Digital Navigator facilitation, supported patient engagement, behavioral insight, and autonomous self-management across an eight-week treatment program.
Conclusions:
Thoughtfully designed data visualizations, when developed collaboratively with clinicians and delivered through structured support, can transform digital phenotyping from a technical capability into a practical tool for enhancing engagement, therapeutic alliance, and patient outcomes in digital mental health care.
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.