Innovation in Mental Health
Event details
| Date | 10.10.2025 |
| Hour | 14:00 › 15:30 |
| Speaker | Thomas Insel, Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, Giorgio Zanetti, Johannes Gräff |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
The smartphone and tablet are revolutionizing how mental health conditions are diagnosed and mental health care is delivered. This revolution is solving old problems of access and stigma, but it is introducing new problems of privacy and quality. How we navigate this brave new world of mental health can be the difference between life and death for millions of people with untreated mental illness. In this lecture, Dr. Thomas Insel describes recent progress in the use of technology and explores what we need to do to ensure that innovation delivers on its promise to transform mental health.
Program
- Welcome address by Prof. Anna Fontcuberta i Morral, EPFL President
- Welcome address by Prof. Giorgio Zanetti, UNIL Vice-Rector for Teaching
- Introduction by Prof. Johannes Gräff, Director of EPFL Synapsy Center
- Lecture by Dr. Thomas Insel
- Q & A
Biography
Tom lnsel, M.D., a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, has been a national leader in mental health research, policy, and technology. From 2002-2015, Dr. Insel served as Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). More recently (2015 – 2017), he led the Mental Health Team at Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) in South San Francisco, CA. In 2017, he co-founded Mindstrong Health, a Silicon Valley start-up building tools for people with serious mental illness.
Dr. Insel co-founded Vanna Health in 2022 and currently serves as Executive Chair. Vanna Health is focused on the needs of people with serious mental illness and works with community partners to provide the 3 Ps (people, place, and purpose) for recovery. In 2020, he co-founded Humanest Care, a therapeutic online community for recovery. Since May of 2019, Dr. Insel has been a special advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom and Chair of the Board of the Steinberg Institute in Sacramento, California.
He is the author of the book Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health, published by Penguin Random House in 2022. With journalist co-founders, he recently launched mindsitenews.org, a non-profit digital publication focused on mental health issues. Dr. Insel is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has received numerous national and international awards, including honorary degrees in the U.S. and Europe.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- EPFL Synapsy Center & UNIL/EPFL Health Days