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.