This International Women’s Day, we’re shining a spotlight on one of our Clinical Scientists, Daniella Quinn. According to STEM Women’s latest report, 46% of the total UK science professional workforce are women, reflecting a growth in gender diversity.
Alongside Principal Scientist Dr Michael Ewbank, Daniella wrote our recent article about typing speed and what it tells us about patient outcomes in digital therapy.
We talked to Daniella about her role and what the next year will hold for mental healthcare.
Hi Daniella. Can you tell us about your role and responsibilities here at ieso?
My ieso journey began in February 2019 when I started in the Patient Services team. In early 2020, I joined the Research and Development group on a part-time basis in a junior role, where my time was split between Patient Services and Clinical Science. I then transitioned to full-time and in November 2021 I became a fully-fledged Clinical Scientist.
In Clinical Science we use statistical analysis to explore our large, globally unique dataset of over 600,000 therapy hours and find answers to questions like "Why do some patients respond to therapy, but others do not?". We work very closely with the AI Scientists and Research Engineers, with a common goal of generating insights from our dataset. With help from the Product and Clinical teams, we translate these insights into products and changes in clinical protocols and procedures, with the ultimate aim of improving patient care and outcomes.
What sparked your interest in mental healthcare?
I was so excited when I first discovered I could study Psychology in higher education. That was the first time I can remember being fascinated by the mind, and this fascination continued all the way through to my degree, where I eventually completed my dissertation in neuropsychology.
Aside from this however, like many of us, my connection to mental health has always been a personal one. I think we should all take care of our mental health just as we would our physical health.
And lastly, what do you think the future holds for mental healthcare?
I think the increasing acceptance of mental health issues paves the way for a bright future. There has been a huge shift in the way mental health issues are thought of and spoken about over recent decades, and the struggles we have all faced over the past few years have certainly encouraged those discussions to finally take the front seat.
Parallel to this, the world has also seen unprecedented advancements in technology. Being able to not only develop clinically-validated tools with the most exciting and advanced technologies, but to make these as accessible as possible, to as many people as possible, is the most valuable task we can hope to achieve.
It is no secret the growing demand for mental health support increasingly outweighs access to suitable services, but our ongoing innovation and unwavering motivation to conquer this issue sets us up for a promising future in mental health where anybody can access quality support, anytime, anywhere.
