#171 - Mental Health Is Solvable: Data, AI, and the Future of Care with Nawal Roy
Ryan sits down with Nawal Roy, Founder and CEO of Holmusk, for a powerful conversation about the future of mental health care, the role of data, and why one of the world’s most complex problems may also be one of the most solvable.
Nawal brings a rare combination of conviction, humility, and systems thinking to the conversation. With a background in economics, finance, and strategy, he entered the mental health space after recognizing one massive gap…the lack of high quality data needed to improve research, treatment development, care delivery, and patient outcomes.
His company, Holmusk, has spent more than a decade building one of the largest behavioral health data platforms in the world. In this conversation, Nawal explains why mental health has remained far behind other areas of medicine, why trial and error still dominates treatment, and what could become possible if society committed to solving mental health as a true healthcare problem.
In this episode, Ryan and Nawal discuss:
Why mental health care is still years behind fields like cardiology and oncology
How data became the missing infrastructure in behavioral health
Why mental health should be treated as a healthcare problem, not a moral failure or social defect
The role of stigma in delaying care and limiting access
How AI may help improve mental health treatment and global access
Why trial and error remains one of the biggest problems in psychiatric care
What Holmusk has learned from millions of patient records
Why healthcare payment models are often harder to solve than the technology itself
The leadership required to take on a complex, generational problem
Why meaningful work often begins with attempting something that may never be fully solved by one person
Key Themes
Mental health is not unsolvable.
Nawal makes a clear case that mental health can be improved in the same way other major health challenges have been improved…through research, funding, measurement, infrastructure, and serious societal commitment.
His position is simple and hopeful.
Mental health is a health problem.
Health problems can be measured.
Measured problems can be studied.
Studied problems can be improved.
Data is the foundation for better care.
Nawal compares the need in mental health to what Bloomberg created for finance…high quality data at your fingertips.
His belief is that better data can reduce trial and error, improve outcomes, support clinicians, help researchers, and eventually give patients access to better treatment earlier in the process.
Stigma changes when the frame changes.
One of the strongest moments in the episode comes when Nawal compares the stigma around mental health to the historical stigma around AIDS.
His point is not that the problems are identical.
His point is that stigma can change when society begins to understand a condition as a health issue and commits real research, funding, public policy, and clinical infrastructure toward solving it.
Leadership requires sustained conviction.
This conversation is also about leadership.
Nawal does not romanticize the work. He names the difficulty clearly.
Capital is hard.
Talent is hard.
Partnerships are hard.
Business models are hard.
Healthcare payment systems are hard.
And still, he continues.
For Nawal, the attempt matters. The work matters. The problem is large enough that even solving a small percentage of it would be meaningful.
Memorable Ideas From the Conversation
Mental health should be treated as a healthcare problem.
Trial and error in psychiatric treatment can and should be reduced.
The lack of high quality data has slowed progress in mental health.
The future of mental health may depend on better measurement, better research, and better infrastructure.
AI can only be as useful as the quality of the data underneath it.
Hard problems are hard for a reason.
The attempt matters, even when the full outcome is uncertain.
About Nawal Roy
Nawal Roy is the Founder and CEO of Holmusk, a company focused on transforming mental and behavioral health through real world data, analytics, and evidence generation.
Before founding Holmusk, Nawal built a career in finance, economics, and strategy. His work now centers on solving one of the most complex and consequential challenges in healthcare…improving mental health outcomes through better data, better research, and better systems.
Connect with Nawal Roy
Holmusk: https://www.holmusk.com/
Nawal Roy Website: https://www.nawalroy.com/
Nawal Roy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nawalroy
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Closing Reflection
This episode is a reminder that some problems are too important to avoid simply because they are complex.
Mental health care may be fragmented.
It may be under measured.
It may be far too dependent on trial and error.
But according to Nawal Roy, it is not beyond repair.
With better data, better leadership, better infrastructure, and a serious commitment from society, mental health can become more measurable, more treatable, and more humane.
That is not hype.
That is conviction.
And it may be exactly the kind of conviction this field needs.