The Fonagy Report - What It Means for Digital Health - with Joe McDonald, CAMHS Psychiatrist

I'm joined by Joe McDonald, child and adolescent psychiatrist and author of "FHIR and Loathing in Las Vegas", to talk about the Fonagy Report - the independent review into mental health conditions, ADHD and autism. Recorded ADHD and autism among children and young people has risen vastly since 2000, depending on age band, and the report argues for moving from a diagnosis-dependent system to a needs-led one, leaning heavily on digital and AI tools to get there. We get into what that means for NHS services, the awkward problem of proprietary assessment tools that nobody can openly implement, and whether the digital infrastructure it proposes will be another layer of silos. CHAPTERS 0:00 Introduction 0:33 Fonagy Report Overview 2:16 ADHD Prevalence and Demand 4:26 Diagnosis Bottleneck and Redesign 6:05 Environmental Drivers and Inequality 14:57 Diagnostic Drift and Criteria 18:12 Strategy, Digital Solutions and AI 27:14 Private Assessments, Licensing and Openness 49:59 Screening Schools and Prevention 55:00 AI Workforce Impact and Closing Reflections LINKS MENTIONED Joe McDonald on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/professor-joe-mcdonald-7a63b1a/ Joe McDonald ('Compare The Software') on X https://x.com/CompareSoftware Joe McDonald on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/comparesoftware.bsky.social FHIR and Loathing in Las Vegas https://www.amazon.co.uk/FHIR-Loathing-Vegas-Prof-McDonald/dp/B0FRYDV52G Fonagy Report https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/independent-review-into-mental-health-conditions-adhd-and-autism Open Health Technology Foundation https://openhealthtechnology.org PULSE article on GPs taking on long-term management of ADHD (I apologise, in the episode I incorrectly say that GPs would be expected to diagnose ADHD as opposed to managing it long-term) https://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/clinical-areas/paediatrics/gps-should-take-on-long-term-adhd-management-landmark-review-recommends/ MORE EVERYTHING DIGITAL HEALTH Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@EverythingDigitalHealth GET INVOLVED Comment below to let us know your thoughts on this video, or to suggest future videos we should make. Want to be on the show? Email: suggestions@everythingdigitalhealth.com Please share any videos you found interesting with colleagues or friends. Like the videos to help us reach more people, and if you find them useful don't forget to subscribe! #FonagyReport #ADHD #Autism #DigitalHealth #AI #NHS #EverythingDigitalHealth