Breaking the barriers: functional neurological disorder in the era of digital healthcare

Abstract Functional neurological disorder (FND) is among the most common conditions in neurological practice and among the most poorly served by it. Two things have now changed at once. The science has moved on: FND is increasingly investigated using network, predictive-processing and agency-based models rather than treated as a diagnosis of exclusion, although the specificity, causal status and clinical use of these models remain under study. Digital care has moved beyond teleconsultation and stand-alone applications towards adaptive systems combining remote monitoring, artificial intelligence and machine learning, robotics, neurotechnology and extended reality in the home. Their coincidence is the reason for this collection. It is also the reason for its central argument—once these elements interact, the unit of evaluation is no longer a device or an algorithm but a sociotechnical care system, and the discipline required to build one is systems engineering, anchored at both ends in lived experience. This article is part of the discussion meeting issue ‘Digital healthcare for the management of functional neurological disorders’.