Eating disorders impact around 8% of the world’s population. They can be experienced by people of any age, gender identity, body size, sexuality, or cultural background. It is not just individuals affected; it is their families and communities too. With such a widespread and important issue, there are great opportunities to use a range of digital technologies to support people impacted by eating disorders and their loved ones. However, there are significant challenges too.

In this webinar hosted by eMHIC and the Consortium for Research in Eating Disorders (CoRe-ED), Dr Jorge Palacios will firstly discuss how to implement digital solutions that patients and clinicians engage with, and how to build an evidence base that establishes effectiveness. Arielle Smith will discuss the promise of highly scalable, digital single-session interventions for eating disorders. Rachael Burns will discuss the opportunities and pitfalls that lie within digital technologies from a lived experience perspective. Prof Gemma Sharp will finish with sharing her experiences leading national and international digital health initiative partnerships in eating disorders.  

Webinar Key Discussion Points:

1. Co-designing digital health tools with people with a lived eating disorder experience as well as other key stakeholders is crucial.
2. Reaching and engaging with people who will benefit from eating disorder digital health tools remains a substantial challenge.
3. Evaluations of digital health tools in eating disorders need to be multifaceted and adaptable.
4. There are more considerations to be taken into account in eating disorder digital tool development, particularly neurodivergence status of the users. No one tool will suit all.  
5. There are great opportunities for digital health integration in eating disorder support.