Post No. 5: "I Am Listening" ' Digital Health In The Service Of Psychology And Psychiatry

• Published date: 27 October 2020
• Subject Matter: Food, Drugs, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Privacy, Technology, Privacy Protection, New Technology
• Law Firm: Yigal Arnon & Co
• Author: Ms Tamar Tavory

You: Men are all alike.

Eliza: What is the connection, do you suppose?

You: They are always bugging me about something or other.

Eliza: Can you think of a specific example?

You: Well, my boyfriend made me come here.

Eliza: Is it important to you that your boyfriend made you come here?

You: He said I'm depressed much of the time.

Eliza: I am sorry to hear that you are depressed.

You: It's true. I am unhappy.

Eliza: Can you explain what made you unhappy?¹

ELIZA is not really a therapist, but a computer program written in 1966 that includes a scenario of a "therapist" talking with the patient according to word pattern identification (an early version of natural language processing computer program (NLP)). The inventor, Dr Joseph Weizenbaum, originally sought to demonstrate the artificiality of communication between computer and human, but was surprised by the emotional reactions ELIZA evoked.

So what's the connection between ELIZA and Covid-19? Is the conversation between the modern "Eliza" protected by the duty of medical confidentiality? And what is legally important to know if you develop a product in tele-psychotherapy? That is the subject of this post.

According to the Israel Ministry of Health, Covid-19 has led to an increasing number of calls to health clinics because of mental distress, particularly anxiety and depression. The pandemic stimulates significant fears. People have been fired or furloughed businesses closed, and employment areas such as tourism and culture have been "frozen." In addition, there are the pressures and tensions emanating from social distancing, isolation loneliness, concern about sick or elderly relatives, and the need to care for children staying home. Moreover, there are reports of a rise in family violence. Even under normal circumstances, there is an extensive wait for a psychotherapy appointment - according to a July 2020 survey, the wait time for an initial meeting was a month and a half and the wait for individual psychotherapy was half a year (The Marker, Sept. 25, 2020).

The pandemic finds the mental health field in Israel strained more than ever. Although responsibility for the field was transferred from the Ministry of Health to the HMOs several years ago, and family physicians assist their patients with drug treatments, psychotherapy is still unavailable to most patients who require it. Mental treatment for anxiety and depression seems to be aimed at and available to those able to spend significant sums for...