Last year, over 1 billion people were living with mental health conditions, according to the World Health Organization. At the same time, digital solutions for wellbeing were also prevalent. In fact, the top mindfulness app was downloaded globally over 100 million times by the end of 2025.

Now, as countless people continue to struggle with mental health and more turn to these digital resources, are there ways to improve digital wellbeing tools for improving individuals’ mental health?

A new study launched by a team of researchers at Center for Healthy Minds seeks to understand how mental health digital apps could become more effective in order to decrease the public health burden of mental illness.

“Ultimately, our goal is to learn how these strategies may help reduce symptoms of depression and/or anxiety, and make digital mental health tools more effective and accessible for people everywhere,” says Dr. Simon Goldberg, CHM core faculty and lead researcher of the study.

The study will examine how small amounts of both human and digital support can enhance the Healthy Minds Program (HMP) app. HMP, created by Humin (formerly Healthy Minds Innovations), is a free digital wellbeing program based on the science-backed “Healthy Minds Framework.” 

In addition to the wellbeing training people experience on HMP, they may also experience a combination of a one-time coaching session, coaching support via email, and/or supportive text messages.

By Victoria Vlisides, CHM digital content editor