About the Tech Hub

Dr. Laura Roberts

Dr. Laura Roberts

The Mental Health Technology and Innovation Hub is a Special Initiative of the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. Laura Roberts. We are a collaborative group of clinicians, researchers, educators, trainees, faculty, and staff within the Stanford Department of Psychiatry and the VA Palo Alto Health Care System with an interest in the intersection of mental health, innovation, and technology.

The Tech Hub's mission is to empower clinicians, researchers, educators, and industry partners who are driving mental health advancements through technological innovation. We act as catalysts for our community by providing expertise, connections, and resources, with the goal of democratizing effective solutions that improve the well-being of individuals and communities around the world.

Some of the implementations of mental health technology at Stanford include:

  • Web and app-based interventions for self-management as well as provider-delivered care

  • Use of technology to enhance educational experience for trainees

  • Scalable applications that leverage natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to create personalized health inventories and interventions

  • Wearable hardware that collects and runs computations on big data to identify and interpret biomarkers, and provide behavioral feedback

  • Social media platforms, conversational agents, and Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) that aim to foster belonging and connection

  • Immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (VR and AR) that can treat medical conditions and enhance wellbeing

The Tech Hub’s Cores provide key infrastructure and resources for scholars in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and beyond wishing to enter or currently working in the mental health technology and innovation space. They are also points of interdisciplinary connection, allowing scholars and scientists in other departments, institutions, and in the mental health technology industry to generate exciting research and products based on pioneering work originating in the Department, from ideation through implementation.

The Tech Hub Cores include:

  • Ethics

  • Education + Training

  • Development + Design

  • Research Support

  • Dissemination + Implementation

  • Industry Partnerships

 
 

As the Tech Hub grows, we will be developing each core more fully. If you are interested in participating in or leading one of these cores, please contact the Tech Hub’s Program Manager, Pippa Kennard (pippa@stanford.edu), or a member of the Tech Hub team.