MOH Office for Healthcare Transformation (MOHT) has released a new report outlining how Singapore can strengthen the quality, safety and sustainability of digital mental health through structured accreditation and system-wide activation.
The report draws on discussions from the 2025 Singapore Roundtable on Digital Mental Health, co-organised by MOHT and eMental Health International Collaborative. The Roundtable brought together leaders from Singapore, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom to address a pressing challenge: how to move beyond a fragmented marketplace of thousands of mental health apps toward a coordinated and trusted ecosystem.
While digital tools offer expanded access and new opportunities for care, the report highlights persistent variability in quality. With more than 10,000 mental health apps available worldwide, many do not meet basic standards for privacy, security, usability or clinical effectiveness. This inconsistency creates uncertainty for both users and clinicians. Participants emphasised that scale must be matched with standards, and innovation must be accompanied by trust.
Quality as the foundation
The Roundtable discussions identified core principles for a sustainable ecosystem, including equitable access, user acceptability, clinical effectiveness, cultural appropriateness and strong safety protections. These domains are intended to guide both accreditation models and broader implementation strategies.
Accreditation was highlighted as a mechanism to build confidence in digital tools by setting clear expectations around data protection, cybersecurity, usability and evidence. At the same time, speakers stressed that standards alone are insufficient without practical strategies to support adoption and integration into care pathways.
From framework to implementation
The concept of “activation” emerged as a complementary priority. This includes strengthening digital literacy, embedding co-design with people who have lived experience, supporting workforce capability, and ensuring interoperability across services.
International contributors shared lessons on evidence-based implementation, validated outcome measures and early stakeholder engagement. The overall direction points toward a whole-of-ecosystem approach that blends technological innovation with human-centred design and system coordination.
Key recommendations include:
· Develop a national digital mental health framework
· Implement dynamic accreditation schemes
· Prioritise user-centred co-design
· Enhancing mental health literacy
· Fostering interoperability and collaboration
· Investing in workforce capability
The report concludes that combining structured accreditation with thoughtful activation can help transform digital mental health from a collection of standalone tools into a coherent, scalable and trusted component of modern care.
Read the full Digital Mental Health Roundtable Report from MOHT
