Scroll to top
Tag: smartphones
11/09/2023

Your Smartphone Can Determine Your Level of Intoxication

Article Excerpt: In an innovative approach to public health and safety, a recent study suggests that everyday technology, like smartphones, could play a pivotal role in reducing alcohol-related accidents by determining if you are intoxicated. This study, a collaborative effort between Stanford Medicine and the University of Toronto, uncovers how smartphones and smart speakers might be utilized to assess a person’s alcohol intoxication through changes in their voice… The study stands as a clarion call to action for the creation of digital biomarker repositories by institutions like the National Institutes of Health. The ultimate aim is to forge an intervention system that is both user-friendly and effective in preventing injuries and saving lives, leveraging the power of technology for societal well-being.

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

Article Source: earth.com

09/08/2023

Symposium to Spotlight Digital Mental Health Technology

Article Excerpt: Experts in the field of digital mental health will gather at Dartmouth on Sept. 19 to discuss opportunities and challenges in developing innovative digital tools that can transform mental health care. President Sian Leah Beilock will deliver opening remarks to kick off the Digital Mental Health & AI Symposium organized by the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health at the Hanover Inn. “The Center for Technology and Behavioral Health is a leader in the science of digital health as applied to health behavior,” says CTBH Director Lisa Marsch. “We are excited to host this event with the Dartmouth community to highlight the opportunities for using digital health tools to promote mental health anytime and anywhere.”

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/2kjjkb6t

Article Source: Dartmouth News

08/28/2023

Long-term participant retention and engagement patterns in an app and wearable-based multinational remote digital depression study

Zhang Y, Pratap A, Folarin AA, Sun S, Cummins N, Matcham F, Vairavan S, Dineley J, Ranjan Y, Rashid Z, Conde P, Stewart C, White KM, Oetzmann C, Ivan A, Lamers F, Siddi S, Rambla CH, Simblett S, Nica R, Mohr DC, Myin-Germeys I, Wykes T, Maria Haro J, Penninx BWJH, Annas P, Narayan VA, Hotopf M, Dobson RJB. (2023). Long-term participant retention and engagement patterns in an app and wearable-based multinational remote digital depression study. NPJ Digital Medicine, 6(1), 25–25. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41746-023-00749-3

This paper reported findings related to long-term participant retention and engagement in a large observational digital study for depression, using survey and passive sensor data collected via smartphones and Fitbit devices. Participants (N=614) were recruited from three sites in the United Kingdom, Spain and Netherlands. Data were collected for up to 2 years by the EU research program RADAR-MDD. The majority of participants (68%) remained engaged in the study after 43 weeks. Smartphone and Fitbit usage data showed 3 distinct engagement subgroups for each data stream (most engaged, medium engaged, and least engaged). The least engaged group tended to have the highest depression severity and took significantly longer to respond to survey notifications. The least engaged were on average 5 years younger than the most engaged group. Roughly 45% of participants who stopped completing surveys after 8 weeks continued to share Fitbit data (average of 42 weeks). Findings could inform the design of future digital health studies to enable equitable and balanced data collection from diverse populations.

07/14/2023

Does Artificial Intelligence Belong in Therapy?

Article Excerpt: For many, the nearest therapist these days isn’t someone sitting across from them in a room but a friendly face on the other side of a Zoom, or even a chat thread on a smartphone. In a quantum leap beyond those types of virtual encounters, increasingly, the entity offering mental health advice may not even be a human. Chat-based mental health services boomed during the pandemic, several of them using generative artificial intelligence chatbots to converse about mental health and offer virtual companionship. If that technology starts to make its way into professionally licensed mental health areas, Rep. Josh Cutler has filed legislation to make sure the usage is regulated and disclosed. And he had an unusual collaborator in that mission – his bill was co-written by the generative app ChatGPT.

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

Article Source: CommonWealth

05/22/2023

Addiction Recovery Provider Uses AI to Monitor Telehealth Meds for Opioid Use Disorder

Article Excerpt: In senior living communities and nursing homes, it’s often a challenge to keep residents with opioid-use disorder in treatment and monitor their medications when they can’t visit the doctor. An addiction medicine practice in Indiana found a fix by creating a platform combining smartphone and AI technology to connect patients with doctors and help providers comply with treatment regulations.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/9xuzfu5y

Article Source: McKnights Senior Living

02/10/2023

CBT Smartphone App Aims to Address Depression in Teens

Article Excerpt: Researchers recently created a brand new CBT smartphone app that will provide young people with multiple ways to address and handle their mental health problems. A study group will now be assembled to assess the effectiveness of the smartphone application in relation to its ability to combat depression. Adolescents are struggling with depression at higher rates today than ever before. Researchers believe that the stress of the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting peer isolation and disruption to school life is to blame. Other factors cited include an ever-growing presence on social media and pressure to conform to impossible celebrity standards. Thus, any way in which technology can help depressed teens minimize symptoms is much-needed. Through the use of interactive and self-guided therapy, the ClearlyMe app will use the power of cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, on teenagers from all over the country. The technology contains 37 “short lessons” that will touch upon the basics of CBT and the power it has to change thinking and alter core beliefs in those who use it.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/326u5s8v

Article Source: Legal Reader

01/09/2023

New mHealth Intervention Aims to Curb Smoking Among Black HIV Patients

Article Excerpt: Following a $1.3 million grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, Lorra Garey, a researcher from the University of Houston RESTORE Lab, plans to lead a research project to assess the impact of an mHealth application to mitigate smoking among Black people with HIV. HIV, a virus that attacks the body’s immune system, affects a large portion of the worldwide population. According to the World Health Organization, it has led to 40 million deaths globally. In addition, the US Department of Veterans Affairs noted that about 20 percent of US citizens with HIV are not aware that they have it, according to the press release.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/456cr8fh

Article Source: mHealthIntelligence

12/12/2022

Researchers to Develop Smartwatch Device to Address Youth Mental Health Crisis

Article Excerpt: With the goal of addressing a growing mental health crisis among teenagers, Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) partnered with Analog Devices, Inc (ADI) to develop a wearable smartwatch device to serve as an early detector of suicidality or depression. According to federal data, suicide is the second-leading cause of death among youth aged 10 to 17. The data also shows that youth suicide rates in the US increased from 6.8 per 100,000 in 2007 to 10.7 per 100,000 in 2018, according to the press release. On top of this, thoughts related to suicide are common, with 18.8 percent of high school students in the US having reported suicide consideration. This high demand for mental healthcare among the youth often exceeds the number of mental health beds available, forcing patients to wait in the emergency department for days.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/ac6jjft5

Article Source: mHealth Intelligence

12/01/2022

UAMS Researchers Design App to Prevent Opioid Use Disorder Relapse

Article Excerpt: A trio of researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) have designed a smart phone application to decrease opioid cravings and optimize medication-assisted treatment among individuals with opioid use disorder. A prototype of the app, known as OptiMAT (Optimizing Medication Assisted Treatment), was one of five winning entries in the 2022 National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) “Product Prototypes to Combat Drug Craving” Challenge, a national contest of product prototypes designed to reduce drug cravings and prevent drug misuse, earning Andrew James, Ph.D., Ronald G. Thompson, Ph.D., and Mary Bollinger, Ph.D., an honorable mention and a $5,000 cash prize.

Full Article: https://tinyurl.com/yc7jrp5h

Article Source: UAMS News