Ronke Lawal, MBA
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Latest articles
Conditions and diseases
The separation of mental and physical health care still rests on a Cartesian inheritance, the old assumption that mind and body are fundamentally different kinds of things, one physical and mechanical, the other immaterial and spiritual. That framework may have…
The separation of mental and physical health care still rests on a Cartesian inheritance, the old assumption that mind and body are fundamentally different kinds of things, one physical and mechanical, the other immaterial and spiritual. That framework may have served a purpose in an era when medicine lacked the tools to explain what it could not measure, allowing physicians to attend to the body while matters of the mind …
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The Cartesian split in mental and physical health care
Conditions and diseases
I recently listened to a heated but friendly debate among medical students about why some of their peers seemed to struggle far more than others. The underlying assumption was simple enough: they had the same twenty-four hours, sat for the…
I recently listened to a heated but friendly debate among medical students about why some of their peers seemed to struggle far more than others. The underlying assumption was simple enough: they had the same twenty-four hours, sat for the same exams, moved through the same clinical rotations, and endured the same demands. If everyone was being asked to do essentially the same thing, why did some people seem to …
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Why medical student mental health is not about willpower
Health technology
Owning a proprietary infrastructure layer in AI right now is closer to owning a diamond mine than owning a piece of software, yet most mental health apps still choose to live inside the wrapper pool rather than build their own.…
Owning a proprietary infrastructure layer in AI right now is closer to owning a diamond mine than owning a piece of software, yet most mental health apps still choose to live inside the wrapper pool rather than build their own. That observation comes from years spent building at the intersection of artificial intelligence, behavioral psychology, and neuroscience, evaluating every frontier AI model available, both general-purpose and mental-health-specific, until I could …
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Why most AI mental health apps feel like a loop
Conditions and diseases
The first law: Nothing is lost "I used to be smart, now I can't think. I used to solve puzzles pretty easily, but now I don't have any logic whatsoever. Sometimes I don't even remember the days I had a…
The first law: Nothing is lost
“I used to be smart, now I can’t think. I used to solve puzzles pretty easily, but now I don’t have any logic whatsoever. Sometimes I don’t even remember the days I had a week ago. I don’t know why my brain doesn’t work anymore.”
I kept seeing the same grief in different words: people who were not simply sad, but bewildered by the disappearance of …
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The thermodynamics of depression brain fog
Conditions and diseases
There is a father somewhere on the internet, grieving his son on camera, doing the brave and devastating work of converting his loss into warning signs for someone else's child. He lists them carefully: if someone tidy becomes constantly disorganized,…
There is a father somewhere on the internet, grieving his son on camera, doing the brave and devastating work of converting his loss into warning signs for someone else’s child. He lists them carefully: if someone tidy becomes constantly disorganized, if nothing excites them anymore, if the texture of their daily life has quietly collapsed, please speak to someone, get professional help.
The comments beneath the video tell you everything about …
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Isolation and suicidal thoughts: the quiet friend
Conditions and diseases
The illusion of safety "I suffer from depression and my boss told my coworker behind my back that I was using it as an excuse to be lazy, and that if I just listened to some Taylor Swift I'd feel…
The illusion of safety
“I suffer from depression and my boss told my coworker behind my back that I was using it as an excuse to be lazy, and that if I just listened to some Taylor Swift I’d feel much better.”
– Junior Associate
Anyone with an HR voice will tell you that one of the most important steps you can take to protect your well-being at work is to talk to …
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Workplace mental health is a culture problem
Conditions and diseases
There is a particular cruelty in growing up, not the ordinary kind involving responsibility or the poetic loss of innocence. The cruelty is this: A child can survive something they do not yet have the language to name, carry it…
There is a particular cruelty in growing up, not the ordinary kind involving responsibility or the poetic loss of innocence. The cruelty is this: A child can survive something they do not yet have the language to name, carry it quietly for decades, and only begin to suffer its full weight once they have developed the cognitive architecture to understand what was done to them. The horror is not concurrent …
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The hidden link between childhood trauma and addiction
Conditions and diseases
Halfway through a teletherapy session, you notice your therapist pause mid-sentence. They've just heard the soft clatter of your keyboard, or seen your eyes flick sideways to a second screen. You're technically "there" on video, but a work email just…
Halfway through a teletherapy session, you notice your therapist pause mid-sentence. They’ve just heard the soft clatter of your keyboard, or seen your eyes flick sideways to a second screen. You’re technically “there” on video, but a work email just popped up, laundry is buzzing, someone’s messaging you, and suddenly the session is sharing space with three other tabs in your brain.
On the therapist’s end, it can feel like talking …
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Gen Z, ADHD, and divided attention in therapy
Conditions and diseases
A few days ago, I was speaking with a high-achieving, articulate, brilliant friend, someone always up and doing, super-expressive. During our conversation, I noticed her stumbling over her words, which was quite unusual, and her fidgety hands. She was narrating…
A few days ago, I was speaking with a high-achieving, articulate, brilliant friend, someone always up and doing, super-expressive. During our conversation, I noticed her stumbling over her words, which was quite unusual, and her fidgety hands. She was narrating a traumatic incident that had occurred to her and how it tore her apart and made her simply give up on everything, in her words, “she was done.” Throughout the …
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Trauma in high-functioning adults
Conditions and diseases
During a casual conversation about mental health, a friend admitted something striking: "I stopped going to therapy because I'd leave feeling great, but by the time I actually needed what we talked about, like in the middle of an argument…
During a casual conversation about mental health, a friend admitted something striking: “I stopped going to therapy because I’d leave feeling great, but by the time I actually needed what we talked about, like in the middle of an argument or a panic attack, I couldn’t remember any of it. It felt like throwing money away.”
This confession revealed a silent challenge in mental health care. The issue isn’t finding the …
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The therapy memory recall crisis
Health technology
America's mental health system is failing its seniors, caught in a perfect storm of: a rapidly growing population, a severe shortage of geriatric psychiatrists, and a Medicare model buckling under the weight of chronic, costly conditions. For millions of older…
America’s mental health system is failing its seniors, caught in a perfect storm of: a rapidly growing population, a severe shortage of geriatric psychiatrists, and a Medicare model buckling under the weight of chronic, costly conditions. For millions of older adults living with anxiety, depression, or isolation, the system offers little or no treatment; often, the nearest provider is hours away, and waitlists stretch for months. …
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Why Medicare must embrace AI support
Health technology
For the third time in six weeks, a 34-year-old woman sat in an emergency room, desperate for help, and for the third time, the system failed to see her. It saw her dehydration, severe enough to require IV fluids. It…
For the third time in six weeks, a 34-year-old woman sat in an emergency room, desperate for help, and for the third time, the system failed to see her. It saw her dehydration, severe enough to require IV fluids. It saw her malnutrition, with electrolyte imbalances that required correction. It saw her vision problems, concerning enough for an ophthalmologic consultation. It saw everything except the person suffering. Each time, the …
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Systematic neglect of mental health
Health technology
As a founder developing AI systems for mental health support, I have wrestled with a fundamental question: How do we use AI to expand access while maintaining patient-provider trust? Building an AI Mental Health Copilot has shown me that the…
As a founder developing AI systems for mental health support, I have wrestled with a fundamental question: How do we use AI to expand access while maintaining patient-provider trust? Building an AI Mental Health Copilot has shown me that the ethical challenges are as complex as the technical ones, and far more consequential. The mental health crisis demands innovation. AI copilots offer scalable, always-available support to bridge care gaps caused …
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Ethical AI in mental health: 6 key lessons
Health technology
Into this psychological wasteland, we're now introducing AI companions as the solution. Meta's personas, Character.AI's virtual friends, and romantic chatbots; the market for artificial intimacy is exploding. The promise is seductive: connection without risk, companionship without effort, and validation on…
Into this psychological wasteland, we’re now introducing AI companions as the solution. Meta’s personas, Character.AI’s virtual friends, and romantic chatbots; the market for artificial intimacy is exploding. The promise is seductive: connection without risk, companionship without effort, and validation on demand.
But here’s what these AI relationships actually do: They allow users to avoid the very challenges that build psychological resilience. Genuine relationships require vulnerability, the ability to tolerate conflict, and …
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AI companions and loneliness
Health policy
The numbers are staggering. Americans made 139.8 million emergency department visits in 2024, that is 42.7 visits per 100 people, with behavioral health issues driving an unprecedented surge. Behind these statistics lies a harsh reality: depression, a leading cause of…
The numbers are staggering. Americans made 139.8 million emergency department visits in 2024, that is 42.7 visits per 100 people, with behavioral health issues driving an unprecedented surge. Behind these statistics lies a harsh reality: depression, a leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide, is overwhelming our emergency departments with cases they were never designed to handle. This tsunami of mental health crises creates a vicious cycle. …
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The physician mental health crisis in the ER
Conditions and diseases
A system hemorrhaging talent: the scale of the crisis The global health care system is teetering on the edge of a catastrophic workforce deficit, with the World Health Organization projecting a shortfall of 11 million health workers by 2030. Nowhere…
A system hemorrhaging talent: the scale of the crisis
The global health care system is teetering on the edge of a catastrophic workforce deficit, with the World Health Organization projecting a shortfall of 11 million health workers by 2030. Nowhere is this crisis more acute than in the behavioral health sector, which is not merely losing talent but hemorrhaging it. The time for action is not just now, it’s yesterday.
Community …
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The mental health workforce is collapsing
Health technology
As a founder in digital mental health, I've watched our industry celebrate reaching $8.34 billion in valuation while systematically failing 40 percent of the population. This isn't just a moral failure, it's a $20 billion market opportunity that's being ignored…
As a founder in digital mental health, I’ve watched our industry celebrate reaching $8.34 billion in valuation while systematically failing 40 percent of the population. This isn’t just a moral failure, it’s a $20 billion market opportunity that’s being ignored because of cultural blindness. For physicians trying to refer diverse patients to digital mental health resources, the options are frustratingly inadequate. With the total U.S. behavioral health market valued …
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Digital mental health’s $20 billion blind spot
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