SyMptOMS is a research project that marries the technical expertise of the GeoSpatial Technologies Research Lab (GEOTEC) with the knowledge in experimental psychology of the Laboratory of Psychology and Technology (LABPSITEC) to develop innovative solutions for the diagnosis, treatment, and relapse prevention of mental health disorders. Hereby, the fundamental observation and starting point is the fact that, despite its enormous potential, the use of geospatial and mobile technologies for mental health is insufficiently researched and used in practice.
In SyMptOMS, we therefore investigate how the current capabilities of modern mobile phones (e.g., GPS coordinates, built-in sensors, environment and context detection) and other wearable devices (e.g., smartwatch, sports bracelets, wearable and/or embedded sensors, etc.) may be used and exploited to modernise or develop new psychological assessment and interventions. In a first phase of the project, the focus is particularly on mobile phones applied for so-called ecological momentary assessment and interventions, whereby the patient’s location and behaviour are monitored in order to deliver in-situ and real-time interventions. In a later phase, the developed solutions will be extended to include contextual information through wearables and context-aware analysis.
The project was initiated end 2017 with GEOTEC’s own funding. In September 2018, an FPU scholarship was granted on the topic, and in the course of 2019, external funds were awarded from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.

SyMptOMS is aimed to be a configurable and extensible mobile sensor- and wearable-based Platform that allows therapists to define and configure momentary ecological assesments and interventions, which are delivered on the patient's smartphone. The platform itself is configurable with respect to data collection, analysis and visualization, and allows timely intervention actions to be specified based on captured data and data analysis results.