The Tech Hub is excited to welcome Stanford Psychiatry Grand Rounds speaker, Dr. Adam Gazzaley, PhD, to join us for an intimate Q&A session on April 3rd 12-1 pm (Pacific). This discussion will expand upon themes covered in his Grand Rounds talk on “A New Era of Experiential Medicine: Cognitive Enhancement Technologies” and will be an opportunity to ask Dr. Gazzaley questions about his work in a more conversational setting.

A fundamental challenge of our global healthcare system is the development and distribution of effective treatments to enhance cognition in those suffering from diverse psychiatric and neurological conditions. Dr. Gazzaley will describe the use of custom-designed, closed-loop video games to achieve cognitive benefits in both healthy individuals (Nature 2013; Nature Human Behavior 2019; Nature Aging 2022, PNAS 2022) and patients (Lancet 2020). This approach has now yielded the first FDA-approved video game for any clinical condition. He will share with you the next stage of his research program, which integrates digitally-delivered experiences with the innovations in machine learning, virtual reality, multimodal physiological recordings, non-invasive electrical brain stimulation and psychedelics to enhance cognition.

About Dr. Adam Gazzaley: Dr. Adam Gazzaley obtained an M.D. and Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, completed Neurology residency at the University of Pennsylvania, and postdoctoral training in cognitive neuroscience at University of California, Berkeley. He is currently the David Dolby Distinguished Professor of Neurology, Physiology and Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco and the Founder & Executive Director of Neuroscape, a translational neuroscience center at UCSF engaged in technology creation and scientific research.

Come with your questions for Dr. Adam Gazzaley or, if you’d like to submit them ahead of time, you can email them to ashartle@stanford.edu. We hope to see you there!

Zoom Link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/94690415322?pwd=ZkYyWmdERGV5eWVUckM5cjNhZ2pzQT09&from=addon

Anyone interested in the intersection of mental health, technology, and innovation is welcome to join Tech Hub events.

Please note: this Hubinar will NOT be recorded.

Join us on Wednesday, March 13th from 12-1pm (Pacific), as we showcase a series of short presentations by current and recent trainees as well as early-career investigators from Stanford (Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences), the VA, and PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium. Each person will be invited to present on their work and interests involving the development, testing, and implementation of novel technology-based mental health interventions. Each presentation will be followed by an opportunity for Q&A with the group. This is intended to be an informal opportunity to increase trainee and early-career visibility, provide an opportunity for input/feedback, and facilitate networking.

 Carter H. Davis, M.S. will discuss a randomized controlled trial of an online storytelling-based ACT intervention for depression in primary care. He will discuss theoretical foundations of integrating narratives into psychosocial interventions and results of the intervention on patient outcomes.

Declan Grabb, MD discuss prompt engineering of Large Language Models (LLMs) and relevant model hyper-parameters in the realm of mental health advice, based on his papers last summer/fall in Journal of Medical Artificial Intelligence and Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.

Haijing Wu Hallenbeck, PhD [Topic TBC]

Eve Rosenfeld, PhD [Topic TBC]

Join us on Wednesday, February 14th from 12-1pm (Pacific) as we explore innovative suicide prevention interventions by showcasing a recently launched mobile app by VA’s National Center for PTSD’s Mobile Mental Health Program. Colleen Becket-Davenport, PsyD, Clinical Psychologist, will join us from that program to discuss the design and development process of VA’s Safety Plan app, which is designed for safety planning with anyone who has experienced thoughts about suicide or self-harm. She will provide an in-depth tour of the app, highlighting its various features, functionalities, and evidence-based interventions. Dr. Becket-Davenport will also share some use cases and offer suggestions for successfully using the app with at-risk patients.

This presentation will discuss the development of the National Center for PTSD’s Safety Plan app for suicide prevention. A comprehensive demonstration of the app will be provided, and Dr. Becket-Davenport will also share resources to support the use of Safety Plan in clinical settings.

 Colleen Becket-Davenport is a licensed clinical psychologist located in San Francisco, CA. She is a Clinical Psychologist and Communication & Training Lead for the Tech into Care Team, National Center for PTSD. She is also a member of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS), and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Weill Cornell Medical College from 2017-2018.

CME Credits: You may be eligible to receive CME credits for attending this Hubinar. More information will be provided at the start of the event. If you have questions, please reach out to Adam Shartle (ashartle@stanford.edu).

Zoom link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/94590786411?pwd=S29HYVNMV3A1bDR1K1RiYWVYK3BPdz09

Please note: this Hubinar will NOT be recorded.

Anyone interested in the intersection of mental health, technology, and innovation is welcome to join Tech Hub events!

The Tech Hub is excited to welcome Stanford Psychiatry Grand Rounds speaker, Dr. Nahum-Shani, PhD, MA to join us for an intimate Q&A session on Jan 24th from 12 to 1pm (Pacific). This discussion will expand upon themes covered in her Grand Rounds talk on “Optimizing the integration between digital and human-delivered intervention components: The hybrid experimental design” and will be an opportunity to ask Dr. Nahum-Shani questions about her work in a more conversational setting. 

Advances in mobile and wireless technologies offer tremendous opportunities for extending the reach and impact of psychological interventions and for adapting interventions to the unique and changing needs of individuals. However, insufficient engagement remains a critical barrier to the effectiveness of digital interventions. Human delivery of interventions (e.g., by clinical staff) can be more engaging but potentially more expensive and burdensome. Hence, the integration of digital and human-delivered components is critical to building effective and scalable psychological interventions. Existing experimental designs can be used to answer questions either about human-delivered components that are typically sequenced and adapted at relatively slow timescales (e.g., monthly) or about digital components that are typically sequenced and adapted at much faster timescales (e.g., daily). However, these methodologies do not accommodate sequencing and adaptation of components at multiple timescales and hence cannot be used to empirically inform the joint sequencing and adaptation of human-delivered and digital components. This seminar focused on introducing the hybrid experimental design (HED)—a new experimental approach that can be used to answer scientific questions about building psychological interventions in which human-delivered and digital components are integrated and adapted at multiple timescales. We described the key characteristics of HEDs (i.e., what they are), explained their scientific rationale (i.e., why they are needed), and provided guidelines for their design and corresponding data analysis (i.e., how can data arising from HEDs be used to inform effective and scalable psychological interventions).

About Dr. Nahum-Shani: Dr. Nahum-Shani’s primary research interest is harnessing adaptive interventions to transform health care. Adaptive interventions address the changing needs of individuals by modifying their treatment based on dynamic information about their state and progress. An important focus of her work is the Just-In-Time Adaptive Intervention (JITAI), a special type of adaptive intervention that leverages powerful mobile and sensing technologies to adapt the delivery of support in real-world settings—in near real-time. Her work is highly multidisciplinary, spanning behavioral health and applied psychology, while also being tightly integrated with advanced research methodology. She developed the Hybrid Experimental Design (HED) to help health scientists optimize the integration of human-delivered (e.g., coaching session) components with digital (e.g., mobile-based) components, which necessitates adaptation on multiple timescales. 

Come with your questions for Dr. Nahum-Shani or, if you’d like to submit them ahead of time, you can email them to ashartle@stanford.edu. We hope to see you there!

CME Credits: You may be eligible to receive CME credits for attending this Hubinar. More information will be provided at the start of the event. If you have questions, please reach out to Adam Shartle (ashartle@stanford.edu).

Zoom Link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/97695556767?pwd=c25TMExOU2lkVU85VDd2Qm5nRHZOUT09

Anyone interested in the intersection of mental health, technology, and innovation is welcome to join Tech Hub events.

Please note: this Hubinar will NOT be recorded.

Join us on Wednesday, November 1st from 12-1pm (Pacific) as we explore how generative AI could transform the future of online peer-to-peer counseling. We’ll be joined by Dr. Diyi Yang, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University, to discuss how we can leverage this powerful technology to improve the quality, scalability, and efficacy of online peer-to-peer counseling. 

Peer counseling is a promising way to scale mental wellness support, but the efficacy of this type of support can vary widely. So, how do we provide peer counselors with thetraining and support they need in order to be effective? And how do we do this at scale?

In the first half of her talk, Dr. Yang will explore how machine learning algorithms can be used to enhance the quality of counseling interactions. In one study, an algorithm was built to identify common therapy strategies that counselors use and understand how these text signals correlate with changes in the seekers’ mental health. In the second half of her talk, Dr. Yang will introduce CARE, an interactive AI agent that supports therapists through AI-empowered feedback and deliberative practices. Join this illuminating discussion to find out how machine learning algorithms and generative AI tools like CARE could enhance the capabilities of counselors and make peer-to-peer counseling more accessible than ever.

About Dr. Diyi Yang: Diyi Yang is an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University. Her research focuses on natural language processing for social impact. She has received multiple best paper awards and recognitions at leading conferences in NLP and HCI. She is a recipient of IEEE “AI 10 to Watch” (2020), Intel Rising Star Faculty Award (2021), Samsung AI Researcher of the Year (2021), Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship (2021), NSF CAREER Award (2022), and an ONR Young Investigator Award (2023). 

CME Credits: You may be eligible to receive CME credits for attending this Hubinar. More information will be provided at the start of the event. If you have questions, please reach out to Pippa Kennard (pippa@stanford.edu).

Zoom link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/93410275623?pwd=RS9oZ0VZV0RUVy9PTFRjK3NyT0pKZz09

Please note: this Hubinar will NOT be recorded.

Anyone interested in the intersection of mental health, technology, and innovation is welcome to join Tech Hub events!

Join us on Wednesday, October 4th from 12-1pm (Pacific) for a discussion led by Dr. Nick Jacobson, PhD, of Dartmouth College on the innovative use of passive data to enhance digital assessment and treatment of mental health conditions.

Mental health disorders are a leading cause of disability worldwide, yet 3 in 5 persons affected by these disorders do not receive minimally adequate care. Utilizing passively collected data in daily life, such as data from smartphones, wearables, and the internet, can enhance the assessment and treatment of mental health conditions.

In this talk, Dr. Jacobson will explore how passive data can be used to accurately capture symptom severity and both rapid and long-term changes in symptoms. Participants will gain insights into the use of technology-based interventions, such as digital therapeutics and chatbots, to deliver personalized and evidence-based treatments at population scales. The discussion will also cover ongoing research to develop a generative chatbot that can respond dynamically to user input with a therapeutic response, using curated expert content and expert ratings over time. This research suggests that passive sensing has the potential to improve detection rates, inform targeted prevention interventions, and deliver just-in-time adaptive interventions.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Understand the limitations of traditional mental health assessments and the advantages of integrating passive sensor data from smartphones and wearables to enhance precision assessment.

2. Gain insights into the methodologies for analyzing passive data to accurately capture symptom severity and rapid changes in mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression.

3. Learn how technology-based interventions, including digital therapeutics and chatbots, can be scaled to deliver personalized and evidence-based mental healthcare at population levels.

4. Become familiar with the concept of just-in-time adaptive interventions (JITAIs) and how passive data can be used to inform such interventions for mental health.

5. Explore ongoing research in the development of generative chatbots equipped with curated expert content and ratings, designed to respond dynamically to user input with therapeutic responses.

About Dr. Nick Jacobson: Dr. Nick Jacobson is an assistant professor in the departments of Biomedical Data Science, Psychiatry, and Computer Science at Dartmouth College's Geisel School of Medicine. He's the director of the Treatment Development and Evaluation Core within the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health at Dartmouth. Dr. Jacobson also directs the AI and Mental Health: Innovation in Technology Guided Healthcare (AIM HIGH) Laboratory and has a strong interest in using technology to enhance the assessment and treatment of anxiety and depression. His work has focused on using passive sensor data from smartphones and wearable devices to improve precision assessment and provide personalized technology-based treatments. Dr. Jacobson has published 90 peer-reviewed articles and secured over $3 million as PI and over $20 million in funding as a co-Investigator. 

CME Credits: You may be eligible to receive CME credits for attending this Hubinar. More information will be provided at the start of the event. If you have questions, please reach out to Pippa Kennard (pippa@stanford.edu).

Zoom link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/95853077641?pwd=djYyM1NONE81Y0IyT3hGdFBTSnVWQT09

We’re looking forward to kicking off the new academic year with our first Hubinar on September 13th, 2023 4-5:30pm (Pacific)! 

It’s incredible to see how much our community has grown and how our members continue to push the boundaries of mental health technology and innovation. We’re looking forward to another exciting and impactful year together!

In this Hubinar, we will:

• Reflect on the Tech Hub’s major achievements from the past year and share a preview of our strategic priorities for the coming year. 

• Celebrate our outgoing Leadership Committee members and welcome our newest committee members! 

• Provide an opportunity for you, our community, to share your updates (projects, publications, talks, events) or put out a request to the group (for guidance, collaboration, opportunities). 

• Solicit ideas for future Hubinars, i.e.: topics of interest or speakers you’d like to hear from. 

Anyone interested in the intersection of mental health, technology, and innovation is welcome to attend Tech Hub events. We hope to see you there! 

Please note: our monthly Hubinars will continue to take place over Zoom.

Zoom link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/93201410786?pwd=ZEQ2WCszWWViZGtDb2ZWWTZmSGphQT09

We will be wrapping up this academic year with a series of short presentations by current and recent trainees as well as early-career investigators from Stanford (Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences), the VA, and PGSP-Stanford PsyD Consortium. Each person will be invited to present on their work and interests involving the development, testing, and implementation of novel technology-based mental health interventions. Each presentation will be followed by an opportunity for Q&A with the group. This is intended to be an informal opportunity to increase trainee and early-career visibility, provide an opportunity for input/feedback, and facilitate networking.

Betsy Stade, MA will discuss applications of artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (e.g., ChatGPT) to psychodiagnostic assessment and psychotherapy. She will present recommendations for the development and evaluation of these applications, discuss why mental health is an uncommonly high-stakes domain in the AI space, and outline a proposal for safe and responsible integration of AI into psychotherapy.  

Niki Gumport, PhD will discuss her recently funded study investigating a therapist training program to integrate digital cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia alongside routine psychotherapy for depression anxiety. The background and design of this study will be presented.

Shane Adams, MA will discuss the innovative application of the Middle-Out Approach to evaluating transdiagnostic and multidimensional indicators of health following traumatic stress. Findings from a current study, which examined the efficacy of CS-PTSD Coach for the treatment of PTSD in primary care, will be used to illustrate the utility of this advance as well as clinical implications for triaging patients who may or may not be suitable candidates for brief interdisciplinary care supported by mobile applications. 

Cody Boland, MS will discuss an ongoing project that examines and compares user engagement across the portfolio of VA mHealth apps using key performance indicators found in industry research. This project will also explore patterns of use by app type (eg. treatment companion, self-help) and condition (eg. sleep, PTSD) and will provide an overview of lessons learned and future directions within mHealth app development and dissemination.

Joseph Wielgosz, PhD will discuss innovative approaches to studying engagement in hybrid digital interventions. To achieve effective engagement, many digital interventions incorporate human support from clinical providers or coaches. Understanding how and when support from clinical providers and coaches is most effective requires parsing complex interactions between human support, digital tools, and participant experiences. Recent analyses on trials of peer- and clinician-supported mobile health interventions for Veterans, as well as web-SUCCEED, a coached online skills intervention for Veteran-caregiver dyads, demonstrate ways to gain insights into these interactions.

Eve Rosenfeld, PhD [Topic TBC]

Zoom link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/97904052120?pwd=QitGVXRQdUJ5M1pYK3h3NWVaaE5QUT09

*Please note this event will take place from 12-1pm Pacific*

 Join us on Wednesday, May 10th 12-1pm (Pacific) to hear from Dr Johannes Eichstaedt and Dr Lyle Ungar, of the World Well-Being Project, as they share their work in assessing and promoting mental health using AI and natural language processing.

The content shared on social media makes up one of the largest datasets on human behavior in history. Dr Eichstaedt, PhD (Stanford) and Dr Ungar, PhD (University of Pennsylvania) have developed methods to leverage this data to unobtrusively measure the mental and physical health and well-being of individuals and populations using machine learning, AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP). On the individual level, machine learning models applied to patients’ Facebook statuses can predict their future depression status before it appears in their medical records. On the population level, when language-based prediction models for depression are applied to 1.2 billion geo-tagged Tweets, they allow for the estimation of county well-being with higher external validity than surveys. With regards to the treatment of mental health conditions, recent advances in generative AI models such as GPT4 offer opportunities and risks in supporting mental health treatment – and such developments require careful involvement of clinicians. Drs Eichstaedt and Ungar argue that psychologically-informed NLP and responsible use of AI can augment clinical practice, guide prevention, and inform public policy. Their presentation will be followed by an opportunity for Q&A. 

Johannes Eichstaedt is an Assistant Professor (Research) in Psychology at Stanford and a Shriram Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Human-Centered A.I. He is a computational psychologist and interdisciplinary data scientist studying the mechanisms that give rise to mental and physical health by applying NLP to digital text. His research also explores the use of Large Language Models to promote well-being and mental health. Johannes received his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in 2017 and was elected a Rising Star by the Association of Psychological Science in 2022.

Lyle Ungar is a Professor of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also holds appointments in Psychology, Bioengineering, Genomics and Computational Biology, and Operations, Information and Decisions. He has published over 400 articles, supervised two dozen Ph.D. students, and is co-inventor on ten patents. His current research focuses on using natural language processing and explainable AI for psychological research, including analyzing social media and cell phone sensor data to better understand the drivers of physical and mental well-being.

In 2011, Eichstaedt and Ungar co-founded the World Well-Being Project (together with Andy Schwartz), with this inter-institutional consortium, they have since attracted $4.9m+ in funding and published 60+ articles.

CME Credits: You may be eligible to receive CME credits for attending this Hubinar. More information will be provided at the start of the event. If you have questions, please reach out to Pippa Kennard (pippa@stanford.edu).

Zoom link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/98370833434?pwd=c3NadnhLWWtSMWVFSXRiOExRL0cyZz09

*** Please note: this Hubinar will take place 12-1:30pm (Pacific) ***

Join us on Wednesday, April 12th 12-1:30pm (Pacific) to hear from Dr. Daniel Freeman, PhD, DClinPsy, CPsychol (University of Oxford) and Dr. Mel Slater, DSc (University of Barcelona) as they discuss their innovative work in using Extended Reality (XR) to treat mental health conditions. The field of Extended Reality (XR) encompasses Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR). Dr. Freeman will discuss how he is automating the delivery of psychological therapy with Virtual Reality (VR) in order to increase the availability of effective treatment for patients. He will describe examples of automated therapies and examine aspects such as design, outcome data, patient experience, and health economics. Afterwards, Dr. Slater will discuss his recent work using self-conversation in Virtual Reality (VR) as a therapeutic technique. He will describe how, using the illusion of body ownership, people are able to inhabit two different bodies sequentially - one representing themselves and the other a counselor with whom they can have a conversation. Join us as we explore the opportunities for treating mental health conditions using Extended Reality (XR) with Drs. Daniel Freeman and Mel Slater!

About Dr. Daniel Freeman:

Daniel Freeman is a Professor of Clinical Psychology and NIHR Senior Investigator at the University of Oxford and a consultant clinical psychologist in Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. He is a Fellow of Magdalen College Oxford, the British Academy, and the British Psychological Society. Dr. Freeman’s research has focused on using psychological theory to develop more powerful psychological treatments. He has been using virtual reality in the assessment, understanding, and treatment of mental health problems for over two decades. Dr Freeman is the scientific founder of Oxford VR, a University of Oxford spin-out company. He is the recipient of the 2020 British Psychological Society Presidents' Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychological Knowledge and presented the BBC Radio 4 series ‘A History of Delusions’.

About Dr. Mel Slater:

Mel Slater is a Distinguished Investigator at the University of Barcelona in the Institute of Neurosciences, and co-Director of the Event Lab (Experimental Virtual Environments for Neuroscience and Technology). He was previously Professor of Virtual Environments at University College London in the Department of Computer Science. He has been involved in research in virtual reality since the early 1990s and has been first supervisor of 40 PhDs in graphics and virtual reality since 1989. He held a European Research Council Advanced Grant TRAVERSE 2009-2015 and has now a second Advanced Grant MoTIVE 2018-2023. He is a Research Award Winner of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 2021, and was elected to the IEEE VGTC Virtual Reality Academy in 2022. He is Field Editor of Frontiers in Virtual Reality, and Chief Editor of the Human Behaviour in Virtual Reality section. His publications can be seen on http://publicationslist.org/melslater.

CME Credits: You may be eligible to receive CME credits for attending this Hubinar. More information will be provided at the start of the event. If you have questions, please reach out to Pippa Kennard (pippa@stanford.edu).

Zoom link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/97350788832?pwd=Tm0xeUlOdjlsT2VQOXlCR2R1REM0dz09

Join us on March 15th, 4:00-5:30pm (Pacific) for a Hubinar dedicated to increasing interdisciplinary collaboration between our Tech Hub community and the broader Stanford community! Members from several centers and labs at Stanford that perform highly innovative work dedicated to improving human health and well-being will join to introduce themselves, describe their current work, and (where relevant) share opportunities to get involved. Our guests will include Stanford Biodesign, Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, Center for Digital Health, and Stanford Brainstorm. Broadly, these centers and labs engage in (respectively):

• Health innovation education, translation, and policy

• Studying ethical issues presented by new technologies in biomedicine

• Advancing the field of digital and precision health

• Bringing together academia and industry to systematize innovation in the mental health space

Our goals for this Hubinar are to increase awareness of others working in mental health innovation, help to identify parallel efforts and potential synergies, and inspire areas for collaboration between the Tech Hub community and the many innovative centers and labs that exist within Stanford University. We invite participants to ask questions and engage in discussion with the centers/labs.

Zoom link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/98723630265?pwd=R3I0STk2eWgvRVdkSkh6K1hXVWNOUT09

The Tech Hub is excited to welcome Stanford Psychiatry Grand Rounds speaker, Dr. Patricia Areán, PhD, to join us for an intimate Q&A session on February 1st 4-5:30pm (Pacific). This discussion will expand upon themes covered in her Grand Rounds talk on “Current Uses of Digital Mental Health - Patient Perspectives, Engagement and Outcomes” and will be an opportunity to ask Dr. Areán questions about her work in a more conversational setting. Dr. Areán’s research explores topics such as: What do we currently know about engagement with digital mental health offerings? What does productive versus unproductive engagement look like? What are patients’ preferences regarding these tools? Come with your questions for Dr. Areán or, if you’d like to submit them ahead of time, you can email them to pippa@stanford.edu. We hope to see you there!

About Dr Patricia Areán:

Patricia Areán is a professor in the University of Washington’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and is also a licensed clinical psychologist. Dr. Areán is a leading behavioral scientist, with expertise in cross-cultural mental health, geriatric psychology, assessment and treatment of depression and anxiety, the use of Human Centered Design for adapting psychosocial interventions and in the use of technology to conduct surveys, user experience research and clinical trials to scale. She is currently co-director of the NIMH funded ALACRITY Center and directs the CREATIV and the MHATS Digital Laboratories at the University of Washington. Dr. Areán has published on the recognition and treatment of depression and anxiety, methods for recruiting and retaining large and representative numbers of adults into longitudinal research, and acceptability of using digital data for the purpose of screening and treating mental illnesses. As a senior advisor to the IMPACT Center, Professor Areán provides insight to the center directors regarding future directions of intervention and implementation research.

CME Credits: You may be eligible to receive CME credits for attending this Hubinar. More information will be provided at the start of the event. If you have questions, please reach out to Pippa Kennard (pippa@stanford.edu).

Zoom link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/94037349770?pwd=L1UzWlY4MDBOK1llK3hncy9FSXhRdz09

Meeting ID: 940 3734 9770

Password: 882334

*** Please note: this Hubinar will take place over lunch (12-1pm Pacific) ***

Join us on Wednesday, January 11th from 12-1pm Pacific to hear from Alison Darcy, PhD, about her journey in taking Woebot Health from lab to launch and beyond.

During her time as an intervention scientist in child and adolescent psychiatry at Stanford, Alison Darcy, Ph.D., created cutting-edge tools to provide mental health support. Yet one thought kept bothering her: no matter how wonderful these treatments were, many people would never be able to access them. So after she built Woebot—an AI-driven mental health tool—she founded a company to get it out into the world. Since then, Woebot Health has conducted 8 randomized control trials to inform and validate its work, partnered with healthcare payers and providers to help them scale their mental health offering, and is in the process of seeking FDA approval for its two prescription digital therapeutics, one for postpartum depression and another for adolescents. Hear all about Alison’s journey from academic to entrepreneur, including getting investors, building an evidence base, and staying true to the company’s founding mission.

About Dr Alison Darcy:

Alison Darcy, Ph.D is the Founder and President of Woeboth Health. She is a clinical research psychologist and health tech visionary dedicated to creating smart, scalable, and accessible mental healthcare solutions. Her work to explore how digital treatments can help solve human problems began more than 20 years ago, when she created one of the first online support groups for people with eating disorders. That work led to Ph.D. level studies in psychology at University College Dublin and post-doctoral training at Stanford School of Medicine and with the American Psychiatric Association. At Stanford, Alison also worked with AI pioneer Andrew Ng to explore the intersection of AI and healthcare, leading his Health Innovation Lab in Computer Science. A frequent speaker on digital therapeutics design and development, barriers to care, and engagement, Alison has authored more than 40 publications and been awarded research grants and contracts from the NIH, the Davis Foundation, and APA. She is also currently an Adjunct Faculty member in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Department of Stanford’s School of Medicine. Alison holds a Ph.D., an MLitt, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from University College Dublin.

CME Credits: you may be eligible to receive CME credits for attending this event. More information will be provided at the start of the event. If you have questions, please reach out to Pippa Kennard (pippa@stanford.edu).

Zoom link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/96791530545?pwd=NTZOTVBqU1BqM3VQS3pHSGErKzhHdz09

Password: 910949

Join us on Wednesday, December 7th 4-5:30pm Pacific as we explore the topic of video-delivered therapy with Dr. Neil Thomas and Dr. Katie Aafjes-van Doorn. Dr. Thomas will present on the current research status of the use of videoconferencing to deliver psychological therapies to people with mental disorders as well as discuss recent work with the National eTherapy Centre to use multiple communication channels to support program delivery. Dr. Aafjes-van Doorn will discuss the therapists' and patients' perceptions of teletherapy, their perceived challenges, and different aspects of the therapeutic relationship. These will be examined with regards to the transition to teletherapy at the start of the pandemic, as well as more recently without the pandemic stressors. Their presentations will be followed by an opportunity for Q&A.

Dr. Neil Thomas is Director of the National eTherapy Centre and Deputy Director of the Centre for Mental Health at Swinburne University of Technology. He is also Honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist with the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. Neil leads a research program on developing therapeutic approaches to help people living with persisting mental health problems, with a particular focus on the use of digital technologies, including self-management programs, smartphone apps, tablet computers, and virtual reality.

Dr. Katie Aafjes-van Doorn is a licensed Clinical Psychologist, Assistant Professor at Yeshiva University, and co-founder of Deliberate.ai. Her research is focused on the therapeutic relationship and psychotherapy training both in-person and in teletherapy. Most recently she’s been focused on multi-modal machine learning models for examinations of the paraverbal and non-verbal aspects of the therapeutic relationship and interpersonal skills. 

CME Credits: This event will provide CME credits to those who are eligible. We will share information on how to claim credits at the beginning of the event.

Zoom link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/96952738696?pwd=bkkrakpNdW82S1RtNWVjWmg2MFNxZz09

Password: 634537

The Tech Hub is thrilled to welcome Stanford Psychiatry Grand Rounds speaker Adrian Aguilera, PhD to join us for an intimate, virtual Q&A session on November 2nd 4-5:30pm (Pacific). This discussion will expand upon themes covered in his Grand Rounds talk on “The Imperative of Digital Mental Health Equity” and will be an opportunity to ask Dr Aguilera questions about his work in a more conversational setting. Dr. Aguilera’s research emphasizes digital health equity, utilizing digital technologies to improve health and mental health in low-income and underserved populations, with a specialty working with Latinx populations. Come with your questions for Dr Aguilera, or if you’d like to submit them ahead of time you can send them to pippa@stanford.edu. We hope to see you there!

Zoom Link: https://stanford.zoom.us/j/93604761692?pwd=OWpIK1Y1M1ZXUmc4VmFpTzh3VUN5UT09

Password: 697746

In this conversation-format Hubinar, John Torous will discuss his groundbreaking telehealth and telepsychiatry work.

John Torous, MD MBI is director of the digital psychiatry division, in the Department of Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a Harvard Medical School affiliated teaching hospital, where he also serves as a staff psychiatrist and assistant professor. He has a background in electrical engineering and computer sciences and received an undergraduate degree in the field from UC Berkeley before attending medical school at UC San Diego. He completed his psychiatry residency, fellowship in clinical informatics, and master's degree in biomedical informatics at Harvard. Dr. Torous is active in investigating the potential of mobile mental health technologies for psychiatry and has published over 200 peer reviewed articles and 5 books chapters on the topic. He serves as editor-in-chief for JMIR Mental Health (http://mental.jmir.org/), web editor for JAMA Psychiatry, currently leads the American Psychiatric Association’s Health IT Committee, and is a senior member in IEEE.

This event will take place over Zoom (link).