Can smartphone drug trials improve medical care?

A new clinical trial is attempting to track how participants suffering from depression respond to mental health apps. Researchers and drug companies are paying close attention

It was the second week of March 2015 and, as happens this time every year, downtown Austin, Texas, was overrun with conference goers glued to their smartphones.

Adam Gazzaley, Daphne Bavelier and Eddie Martucci were seated in a fourth floor lounge at the W Austin Hotel. They had just finished giving a presentation at SXSW Interactive, the first segment of Austin's annual festival dedicated to technology, film and music, on how video and mobile games can be integrated into healthcare. Like most conference goers, Gazzaley and Bavelier, both cognitive neuroscientists, and Martucci, the CEO of cognitive-therapy tech company Akili Interactive, were excited about mobile technology's disruptive potential. (Akili is currently working to produce what they hope will be the first FDA-approved video game to be played by prescription.)