Dartmouth and Boehringer Ingelheim Join Forces to Advance Digital Therapeutics
The Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH) at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth has announced a new collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim. The goal of this partnership is to advance prescription digital therapeutics specifically designed to treat serious mental illnesses.
This collaboration will leverage the unique strengths of each organization. CTBH brings its expertise in academic research, while Boehringer Ingelheim offers industry knowledge. Together, they aim to develop tools to combat the global mental health crisis.
“This collaboration embodies our commitment to bringing the best science to build the most effective, engaging tools,” said Dr. Lisa Marsch, founding director of CTBH and a professor within the Departments of Psychiatry and Biomedical Data Science at Geisel School of Medicine. “We’re also deeply committed to scaling things that work and having an impact on people’s lives in the real world across the globe.”
The one-year collaboration, with the possibility of renewal, will combine CTBH’s research with Boehringer Ingelheim’s industry expertise. They will focus on creating, studying, and implementing digital health solutions to transform how clinicians prescribe digital tools for mental and behavioral health conditions. The official launch of this initiative is scheduled for this fall.
Dr. Michael Jablonski, vice president of clinical development and medical affairs at Boehringer Ingelheim, stated, “This collaboration aims to elevate the promise of prescription digital therapeutics, which have the potential to positively impact the health and quality of life for people living with serious mental illness, as well as provide easier access to care.” He added, “CTBH shares with us a belief in creating a deeper understanding of the drivers of serious mental illness, and this collaboration is an important step forward in the long-term journey of delivering more integrated and tailored solutions to enable better outcomes.”
Boehringer Ingelheim is also sponsoring a research project with Dartmouth. Researchers will use ecological momentary assessment and digital sensors on a patient’s mobile phone. This technology will monitor both cognitive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. The data collected will help researchers understand how these symptoms change over time. They also plan to build models that predict future changes.
Both CTBH and Boehringer Ingelheim are optimistic about the collaboration’s potential. Dr. Marsch emphasized, “We aim to conduct rigorous scientific work to understand what truly works and what doesn’t. Moreover, we want to engage in active dialogues with leaders in the commercial, industry, policy, and regulatory spaces. It’s about understanding how to implement these tools in the real world—how they fit into clinical practice and workflows, who administers them, and how they’re offered to patients.”
During the collaboration, the organizations will hold regular in-person meetings, share quarterly updates, and convene at CTBH’s annual Digital Health Summit in late October. Discussions will focus on scientific advancements and the practical integration of effective products into clinical practices.
Dr. Jablonski also highlighted the educational component of the collaboration. “We’re working to educate healthcare providers on the potential of prescription digital therapeutics and how they might be used in the future. Right now, this is an emerging treatment modality, so it is difficult for people to envision using a prescription on a smartphone to treat conditions as severe as schizophrenia,” he noted.
By combining the knowledge and strengths of CTBH and Boehringer Ingelheim, this collaboration has the potential to impact mental health and substance use treatment, offering new hope to patients worldwide.
