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Tag: computer-based
03/10/2023

‘Simple but Effective’: Colombia Turns to Algorithms to Bolster Mental Health Services

Article Excerpt: At the age of 70, Carmen Suárez* is finally coming to terms with an event that happened five decades ago. It was a trauma that changed the course of her life and left her with depression. “I used to cry uncontrollably,” she says. “I was told to seek help, but I had neither the time nor the money. I realise now that I was stuck reliving the incident.” Over the course of a year, the Diada project (detection and integrated care for depression and alcohol use), an innovative project aimed at identifying people with or at risk of developing a mental health or alcohol use disorder, helped her recover.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/2jrfnkdt

Article Source: The Guardian

02/15/2023

ChatGPT Gets Dartmouth Talking

Article Excerpt: ChatGPT, OpenAI’s trending chatbot that generates conversational responses to user prompts through advanced artificial intelligence, has been busy since its launch in late November… “ChatGPT and other generative AI technologies have huge potential for—and will have huge effects on—education,” says Provost David Kotz ’86, the Pat and John Rosenwald Professor in the Department of Computer Science. “My hope is to provide immediate support to faculty and instructors to become familiar with the technology and its impacts, and then look further down the road to consider how we can leverage it as a pedagogical tool, recognizing that it will be part of the future of teaching, learning, scholarship, and work.”

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/59hbkfzm

Article Source: Dartmouth News

11/07/2022

Technology-Assisted Opioid Education for Out-of-Treatment Adults With Opioid Use Disorder

Toegel F, Novak MD, Rodewald AM, Leoutsakos JM, Silverman K & Holtyn AF. (2022). Technology-assisted opioid education for out-of-treatment adults with opioid use disorder. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 36(5), 555–564. https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000769

This pre-post study evaluated the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a technology-assisted education program for adults at higher risk of opioid overdose. The education program was self-paced and included three courses: 1) introduction to opioids, 2) preventing, detecting, and responding to an opioid overdose, and 3) opioid use disorder medications. Each course presented information and then prompted the user to complete a multiple-choice quiz to assess mastery of course material; incorrect answers produced feedback and participants were required to answer the question again to be able to advance to the next course. Forty adult participants with opioid use disorder who were not currently in treatment and who were living in Baltimore, Maryland were referred from community agencies and enrolled in the study. The education program took on average 91 minutes to complete and most participants completed the program in a single day. The mean score for the baseline test was 85% accuracy, indicating that participants already had prior knowledge of opioids, opioid overdoses, and medications. After completion of the program, participants showed significant improvement in test scores across all three courses (increase of 9.1%, 5.8%, and 10.1% respectively; p<.001); this was independent of education, employment, and poverty status. Participants with less than 12 years of education had significantly lower scores than those with 12 or more years of education. The computerized opioid education program demonstrated preliminary feasibility and efficacy in an uncontrolled trial among at-risk adults. Mobile technology allows for the potential to disseminate widely.

04/07/2022

Science Update: Digital Tool to Increase Youth HIV Testing Shows Promise in NIH-Funded Study

Article Excerpt: Youth aged 13 to 24 years who were offered HIV testing by a digital health tool on a tablet computer were as likely to accept as those who were offered testing face-to-face, according to a study funded by the National Institutes of Health. However, among study participants aged 19 and younger who previously declined HIV testing, those who used the digital tool were 1.7 times more likely to agree to an HIV test, compared to those who received a face-to-face offer. Findings from the study, which was conducted in a New York City hospital emergency department, appear in Cureus. The Mobile Augmented Screening tool, or MAS, was developed and evaluated with funding from NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Ian David Aronson, Ph.D., of Digital Health Empowerment and New York University, led the work.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/67nnmsu7

Article Source: NICHD

01/10/2022

FDA Grants Breakthrough Therapy Designation to Device to Treat AML-Induced Depression

Article Excerpt: The FDA has granted a breakthrough device designation to BNT200, a digital therapeutic designed to treat anxiety and depressive symptoms in adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) currently hospitalized for a regimen of high-intensity induction chemotherapy, according to a press release by Blue Note Therapeutics. BNT200 is a software that is designed to treat the unique psychological stressors that create anxiety and depressive symptoms in adult patients with AML undergoing high-intensity induction chemotherapy. It is an on-demand digital therapeutic, with content synchronized with high-intensity chemotherapy treatment.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/2p8pvxty

Article Source: Targeted Oncology

09/06/2021

The use of eHealth interventions among persons experiencing homelessness: A systematic review

Polillo A, Gran-Ruaz S, Sylvestre J, Kerman N. (2021). The use of eHealth interventions among persons experiencing homelessness: A systematic review. Digital Health. https://doi.org/10.1177/2055207620987066

A systematic review was conducted to examine the feasibility and effectiveness of eHealth interventions for homeless populations, and the experiences of homeless population representatives with these digital interventions. Eight articles met the eligibility criteria from the review. All articles were pilot or feasibility studies that used short message service, mobile apps, computers, email, and/or websites, to deliver the interventions. Studies had primarily qualitative or quasi-experimental designs; there was only one randomized-controlled trial. Participants expressed that the accessibility, flexibility, and convenience of interventions are beneficial. However, participants viewed phone retention, limited adaptability, high level of human involvement, and preference for in-person communication as barriers to eHealth interventions. Overall, eHealth interventions have the potential to improve access to care and service delivery because they are feasible and usable for the homeless population. However, there are a number of barriers to adoption and use of these interventions by homeless individuals that need to be considered in designing and implementing eHealth interventions.

08/11/2021

A Yale Doctor Is Using a Video Game to Fight the Opioid Crisis

Article Excerpt: As drug-related deaths have spiked across the United States in recent years, doctors seeking to curb that surge are getting an unlikely new tool: a video game. The game, titled “PlaySmart,” was developed by Lynn Fiellin and funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. A professor at the Yale School of Medicine and Yale Child Study Center, as well as the founder and director of the play2PREVENT video game development lab, Fiellin hopes that by using “PlaySmart,” she and her team will be able to collect more data related to adolescent opioid misuse and provide aid to both kids who play the game and the adults who work those youths.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/jt4k5r8b

Article Source: The Washington Post

08/04/2021

Digital Therapeutics Extend Their Reach in Neurology

Article Excerpt: In recent years, a new genre of medical intervention has started to emerge — digital therapeutics. In the wake of promising results in a number of conditions, one high-profile approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and several ongoing clinical studies, neurologists (and other doctors) may soon be prescribing video games alongside conventional therapies for several conditions.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/3mm6cn6t

Article Source: Medscape

03/12/2021

Stevens Researchers Use AI to Detect Depression

Article Excerpt: Rida Zainub ’20 and Dr. Rajarathnam Chandramouli, Hattrick Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, conducted research that could change how depression is detected all over the world. According to Dr. Chandramouli, “depression is a serious global mental health issue. A severe shortage of mental health medical professionals especially in developing countries demands the research and development of technology solutions to address this problem.” Their goal was to use natural language processing in combination with Explainable Artificial Intelligence to analyze text and detect signs of depression. They explain their method to solve this complex problem quite simply.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/36cvrebz

Article Source: The Stute