With fresh ideas and a new perspective on product development, Merel Scheffers began as a Product Manager at NiceDay Netherlands in January 2022. It marked the start of a significant evolution in the NiceDay product, focusing on optimizing the product, enhancing user experience, and expanding functionalities. With Merel now leading as Head of Product, the development team got to work, and since then, there have been numerous changes. Together, let’s take a look back at the past year, the significant strides made by the NiceDay treatment platform, and look ahead to the future.

The past year brought about numerous improvements to the NiceDay treatment platform. In your opinion, what were the best ones?

To me one of the most significant functionalities was the “To-Do” functionality. This feature enables therapists to create and set various exercises that are visible and checkable for clients as small “to-dos” within the NiceDay app. It provides both the therapist and the client with a clear and manageable overview of ongoing exercises. These could include homework tasks, tracking progress, or self-assessment.

The “To-Dos” are unique in the mental health care market and originated from valuable feedback received from our users. They highlighted the importance of having an overview of the tasks for the coming days and weeks, rather than for the coming months. Many existing products, like e-health modules, ask clients to complete an entire module at once. However, research revealed that this method isn’t favorable for therapists or clients; only 5% of clients use e-health modules two weeks after starting them. Breaking down Niceday tasks into manageable chunks as “to-dos” distributed throughout their treatment journey, makes it clearer for clients what they need to do each day. This approach actively motivates them to engage with their treatment and recovery process daily, rather than completing an entire module at once.

User feedback is crucial for NiceDay. Have other functionalities emerged from that feedback?

Absolutely, we incorporated new ‘trends’ in our graph displays, allowing therapists to quickly identify trends in tracker registrations. For instance, a client can track instances of nightmares. This data is presented in a graph for the therapist, now showcasing the trend. This reduces the time therapists spend interpreting data; when a client has fewer nightmares, we display a positive trend. Conversely, if a client registers more panic attacks, we display a negative trend. This enables therapists to act promptly or adjust interventions as necessary!

Another important addition is the Time Tracking export. In the current healthcare performance model, therapists can declare chat times, but administration is challenging. With our time tracking, all this direct time is automatically tracked in NiceDay. Therapists can then easily export and import this data into the EPD (Electronic Patient Dossier).

Additionally, the redesign of the NiceDay app stemmed from feedback from therapists and clients. Navigating the app and finding functionalities could be improved, and therapists were spending valuable time explaining the app to their clients. So, we decided to overhaul the app; the app’s user experience needed to be more accessible, pleasant, and intuitive. To understand the app’s user experience better, our development team engaged in conversations with app users. The result? An app that was visually more appealing and, importantly, more user-friendly and aligned with the needs of our users.

What new functionalities are planned for the upcoming year?

We’ve been diligently working on the successor to To-Dos: Care Paths. Care Paths are ready-made sets of exercises or trackers for mapping various symptoms, suitable for schema therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy, among others. For instance, as a therapist, you can select the “Psycho-education: ADHD” Care Path for your client. Spread across their treatment journey, the client will automatically receive psycho-education in the NiceDay app as To-Dos. This includes articles like “What is ADHD?” and “How does ADHD affect sensory processing?”

In addition to information, each Care Path automatically selects exercises. Therapists can choose which set of exercises with explanations they want to send to their clients. It’s a pre-assembled Care Path, simplifying work within NiceDay while remaining customizable!

What’s the plan for NiceDay in 2024?

Next year, we’ll focus on optimizing existing functionalities and adding new content in collaboration with our clients and domain experts.

Furthermore, I believe it’s crucial for the future of mental health care that we integrate with EPDs (Electronic Patient Dossiers). Enabling data exchange between a treatment platform, eHealth, and client records will enhance data value and further support therapists in delivering appropriate care. Hence, we’ll concentrate on collaborations and, as per our clients’ requests, integrations with various EPDs, such as Psylaris, and questionnaire providers.

Questionnaire providers are for introducing diagnostic questionnaires within NiceDay. At the start of treatment, therapists conduct an assessment or diagnostic phase because they might not know the client’s specific condition. Many of our users currently rely on other products for this, so our aim is to integrate another product within NiceDay.

Lastly, besides product development, we’re continually running our R&D projects. These will continue in 2024:

• XAI: An Explainable AI research project with Council and Deeploy focusing on developing algorithms that provide decision support for therapists. Based on the dataset, NiceDay will suggest to the therapist which client would benefit most from specific interventions at that moment. We anticipate concluding this project by the end of 2023, with the first implementation expected in late 2024.
• PERSIST: Collaborating with a Brazilian partner, we’re working on personalized content recommendations. This project runs until mid-2025, but we expect to roll out the initial implementation by the end of 2024.
• ADMIRED: A study tracking individuals with bipolar disorder to predict episodes and propose timely interventions. This project begins in early 2024 with a broad European consortium.

We’re looking forward to a year where we continue to actively listen to our users and work together to further optimize the NiceDay treatment platform. We also look forward to a year with room for innovation in which we can work together to reduce therapists’ workload and waiting lists. In short, striving for a better mental healthcare system!