About the project
The MasterMind project aimed to make high quality treatment for depression more widely available for adults suffering from the illness by the use of ICT. A major cause of morbidity worldwide, depression is characterised by its high incidence, social cost and proven clinical effectiveness of ICT in its treatment.
Our goal was to assess through implementation at scale (more than 5.000 patient overall) the impact of cCBT (computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and video conference for collaborative care and treatment for depression across 10 EU and Associated Countries.
The project identified barriers and success factors to implementing the two services on a large scale in different political, social, economic and technical health care contexts and from the perspective of different stakeholders such as patients, professionals and health insurances. We aimed to provide recommendations for successful strategies for implementing cCBT and video conference for depression in these different settings.
The project ran from the 1st of March 2014 to the 28th of February 2017 and had a total budget of €14m co-funded by the CIP ICT PSP.
Overall goal and themes
MasterMind’s overall goal was to “pave the way for equal access to quality mental health care across Europe”. This was based on the central themes of MasterMind:
- Accessibility and equity: All European citizens suffering from depression should have equal access to high quality treatment.
- Collaboration: Countries and regions within Europe should collaborate in order to exchange knowledge to optimize treatment for depression.
- Inclusiveness: All relevant stakeholders should be included in the process of developing depression treatment options.
- Self-management: All citizens suffering from depression, who are able to, and who would benefit from it, should have the opportunity of managing their own mental health.
- “Mastering of own mind”: Through the use of ICT for treatment of depression, depressed citizens can master their own treatment, and thereby their own mind, with minimal involvement of mental health professional
Patient inclusion overview:
Advisory Boards
Patients Advisory Board members:
- Erik van der Eycken – GAMIAN (chair)
- Hilkka Karkkainen – Finland
- Rebecca Muller – Belgium
- Jacintha Hastings – Ireland
- Bert Aben – Netherlands
- Marthe Lokken – Norway
- Urve Randmaa – Estonia
- Muazzes Merve Yüksel – Turkey
- Hakan Wingren – Sweden
- Raluca Nica – Romania
- Ausra Mikulskiene – Lithuania
Professionals Advisory Boards members:
- Prof. Ella Arensman, MSc, PhD – National Suicide Research Foundation, Ireland
- PD Dr. med. Christine Rummel-Kluge – German Depression Foundation
- Prof. Dr. Chantal Van Audenhove – KU Leuven Academic Centre for General Practice, Department of Public Health
- Prof. Margaret Maxwell – Health Services and Mental Health Research, University of Stirling
The roles of these two Advisory Boards were to receive information and learning, and disseminate this within their states or regions, but also to provide advice and guidance as required.
The Committed Regions Board:
- e-Resater (consortium of several countries)
- Autonomous University of Madrid – Spain
- Zamora Province – Spain
- Solentra – Belgium
- Action on Depression – Scotland
- NHS Tayside – Scotland
- Madrid Hospital – Spain
- SWPS – Poland
- Antakalnis Clinic and Lithuanian Health Science University – Lithuania
- Mayden – England
- Psychiatric Hospital of Aita Menni – Spain
- Making Space – England
- NHS Dorset – England
The Committed Regions were regions or partners that had an interest in the services deployed in MasterMind, but which, for various reasons, could not participate in the project itself. This Board functioned as a vehicle to share information between partners in MasterMind and committed regions outside of the consortium to share learning and disseminate information. The learning on both sides helped in the planning and strategy development to widen the use of eMental health services across Europe.
Scientific Committee
The Scientific Committee of MasterMind consisted of the following experts.
Dr. Jose María Quintana
- Position/Affiliation: Head of the Research Unit Medical Section Galdakao Hospital – Usansolo and associate professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, University of the Basque Country UPV / EHU
- Expertise: Epidemiology, preventive medicine, public health policy and management
- MAST domain: 4 – Patients’ and professionals’ perspectives
Anne-Kirstine Dyrvig
- Position/Affiliation: Centre for Innovative Medical Tehcnology (CIMT) at Odense University Hospital (PhD in 2014)
- Expertise: (mini)-HTA, transferability, public health
Davor Mucic, MD
- Position/Affiliation: MD, psychiatrist, director of the centre at The Little Prince Psychiatric Centre; chair telemental health section at EPA
- Expertise: Telepsychiatric treatment across cultures
- MAST domains: 1 – Health problem and application & 4 – Patient and professional perspectives
Prof. Kevin Power
- Position/Affiliation: Honorary Professor Psychology, University of Sterling, UK; Area head NHS Tayside Psychological Therapies Service, Scotland. National Assessor
- Expertise: Adult mental health services, evaluating treatments for anxiety disorders
- MAST domains: 1 – Health problem and application, 3 – Clinical eff. & 4 – Patient and professional perspectives
Dr. Judith Bosmans
- Position/Affiliation: Assistant professor at department of Health Sciences at the faculty of Life Sciences of the VU University Amsterdam
- Expertise: Economic evaluations, epidemiology, life sciences
- MAST domain: 5 – Cost-effectiveness
The Scientific Committee aimed to ensure that MAST was used correctly in the trials, to ensure that each trial was carried out in accordance with the protocol, to ensure that the data analysis was carried out in accordance with the MAST guidelines, and to take part in the publication of papers in scientific journals.