Resources / Digital Psychiatry Index
The Digital Psychiatry Index
The Digital Psychiatry Index defines what responsible psychiatric care should look like in a digital environment. Developed under physician leadership at shrinkMD, it sets system level standards that shape patient safety, experience, and long term outcomes, without ranking platforms or clinicians.
Medically reviewed by Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, FAPA, board certified psychiatrist · Published June 7, 2026 · Last reviewed June 8, 2026 · Editorial policy
Why it exists
Digital psychiatry needs standards
Virtual care is now the first point of contact for many people seeking mental health treatment. Access has expanded and barriers have fallen, but new pressures have emerged: compressed assessments, fragmented relationships, rushed prescribing, variable oversight, and unsustainable clinician workloads.
The Index answers a foundational question: what should responsible psychiatric care look like in a digital environment? Rather than judging individual clinicians or platforms, it defines the system level conditions that consistently shape quality, safety, and outcomes.
The five pillars
The five pillars of the Index
Access Velocity
How efficiently a person moves from recognizing a need for care to receiving meaningful clinical attention. Delays increase symptom burden and discourage future help seeking.
Continuity of Care
Whether treatment functions as an ongoing clinical relationship rather than disconnected encounters. Continuity supports diagnosis, monitoring, trust, and safer decisions.
Medication Safety and Oversight
Responsible prescribing, monitoring, and safeguards, including non controlled medication and defined follow up, so safety is built into every plan.
Ethical Practice
Honest, transparent care that puts patient wellbeing ahead of volume, with clear documentation and informed, individualized decisions.
Clinician Sustainability
Workloads and systems that let clinicians practice carefully over time, because burned out clinicians can't deliver safe, continuous care.
Each pillar above is expanded in full in the complete Digital Psychiatry Index Framework.
Who it's for
A shared language for quality
The Index serves patients seeking transparency, clinicians practicing in telepsychiatry, healthcare leaders designing virtual systems, policymakers shaping standards, and digital health organizations focused on quality.
It gives everyone a shared language for evaluating responsible care in modern psychiatric delivery.
Using the Index
Questions worth asking any virtual psychiatry provider
The Index doubles as a checklist for patients comparing options. Ask any provider: How long is the initial evaluation, and who conducts it? Will I see the same clinician at every visit? How do you measure whether I am improving? What is your prescribing policy on controlled substances? What happens if I need more care than telehealth can provide?
Clear answers to those five questions tell you most of what you need to know about quality, wherever you choose to get care.
Keep exploring
Keep exploring
Frequently asked questions
Good questions, clear answers
What is the Digital Psychiatry Index?
A clinician built standards framework that defines responsible psychiatric care in digital environments across five pillars: access velocity, continuity, medication safety, ethical practice, and clinician sustainability.
Does it rank platforms or clinicians?
No. It defines system level conditions that shape quality and safety, rather than ranking individual platforms or clinicians.
Who developed it?
It was developed under physician leadership at shrinkMD by board certified psychiatrists and healthcare operators.
Is the Index just marketing for shrinkMD?
It holds us to account too. Every standard in the Index is one we measure ourselves against in daily practice, and we publish it so patients can apply the same scrutiny to anyone, including us.
Can other practices or researchers use the Index?
Yes, with attribution. We want responsible standards adopted widely, because the alternative, growth optimized prescribing mills, hurts patients and the credibility of telepsychiatry itself.
How is this different from accreditation or licensing?
Licensing sets the legal floor. The Index describes the clinical ceiling: what excellent digital psychiatry looks like in access, continuity, measurement, prescribing discipline, and escalation. Both matter; they answer different questions.
Care built on standards
Experience psychiatry held to a defined standard. Choose your state, complete the intake, and book your evaluation online.
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