Title: Telepsychiatry to ensure mental health care for all -learnings from developing countries.
Tanjir Rashid Soron is a psychiatrist and digital health expert. He is working to design, develop and implement technology-based mental health services in resource-poor settings to reduce the wide mental health treatment gap around the world. He has established “Telepsychiatry Research and Innovation Network Ltd” http://trin-innovation.com/ which is the leading organization in the region that focuses on cutting edge research on technology-based mental health care and developing low cost digital mental health solutions. He is the pioneer of telepsychiatry in Bangladesh and his innovations are playing key roles in transforming the mental health scenario in Bangladesh. His innovation- Monerdaktar https://monerdaktar.com/ – is the first online mental health care service in Bangladesh where people can seek help from more than 100 psychiatrist and psychologist 24/7. Another key innovation and contribution of Dr. soron is the launching the “Monershastho”- the first mental health mobile application and website to provide evidence based mental health and well being practice sessions, information that everyone can access and practices to promote their mental health and stay healthy. He contributed in development of a mobile application to help professionals in diagnosis and severity of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Bangladesh. He is also working in NIH funded research project “Mobile-Based Care for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Remote Experience Sampling Method (mCARE)”. He is also contributing in developing mobile applications on Autism for other LMICs. He has been leading the first nationwide mobile-based mental health service “MindTale” 2016. Dr. Soron is working as Roaster of expert of Digital Health for World Health Organization (WHO) and member of College of Experts to support the Global Effort on COVID-19 (GECO) Health Research. He dedicated his significant amount of time as Research and Innovation consultant in Neuro-Developmental Disability Protection Trust of Government of Bangladesh- the leading organization of government for ensuring the rights of persons with NDDs and improving their quality of life. Dr. Soron also worked as Head of Department of Psychiatry of a reputed Medical college in Dhaka and contributed as external PhD supervisor for different universities.
His key research area of interest is exploring mobile and SNSs based mental health care, health care policies and digital health ethics. Facebook and Suicide. Dr. Tanjir is on the editorial board for several journals including the JMIR. He has been an invited speaker in different countries and different platforms. He is a Commonwealth Scholar, recipient of the Paramjit Toor Joshi, MD, International Scholars Award from The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) and Fellowship from World Psychiatric Association and World Association of Social Psychiatry