Faculty Affiliates
Lynn E. Fiellin, MD
Lynn E. Fiellin, MD
Professor of Medicine and the Yale Child Study Center; Director, play2PREVENT Lab at the Yale Center for Health & Learning Games; Yale University School of Medicine
Lynn E. Fiellin, MD is a Professor of Medicine in the Section of General Internal Medicine at the Yale University School of Medicine and the Yale Child Study Center. Her research is focused in the area of HIV and substance abuse prevention and treatment. She has received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Health Resources and Services Administration, NIDA, and NIAAA for her work. With the award of a five-year R01 in 2009 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, she changed her focus to developing and testing technology-based interventions for the purpose of improving outcomes in adolescents. In 2009, she founded the play2PREVENT Lab at Yale and subsequently founded and now directs the Lab and the Yale Center for Health & Learning Games. Her Lab/Center focuses on the development and evaluation of videogame interventions targeting a range of outcomes including HIV prevention, promotion of HIV/STI testing, and substance use prevention including tobacco, electronic cigarettes, vaping, and marijuana. Most recently, she was awarded a NIDA HEAL (Helping to End Addiction Long-term) UG3/UH3 grant proposing to develop, evaluate and implement a videogame intervention for opioid misuse prevention in adolescents. She and her team also forge successful collaborations and partnerships between scientists, educators, videogame designers/developers, community-based organizations and others with the goal to develop innovative targeted interventions and educational materials for risk reduction and prevention in youth and young adults.
Selected Publications
- Pendergrass T, Hieftje K, Duncan L, Fiellin L. Videogame intervention to encourage HIV testing and counseling among adolescents. Mhealth. 2020 Jul 5;6:26. doi: 10.21037/mhealth.2020.01.05. PMID: 32632364; PMCID: PMC7327291. View Source
- Hieftje KD, Fernandes CF, Lin IH, Fiellin LE. Effectiveness of a web-based tobacco product use prevention videogame intervention on young adolescents' beliefs and knowledge. Subst Abus. 2019 Dec 11:1-7. doi: 10.1080/08897077.2019.1691128. PMID: 31825759. View Source
- Hieftje K, Duncan L, Florsheim O, Sawyer B, Fiellin LE. One night Stan: Feasibility study of an HIV prevention and sexual risk reduction social card game for young black women. Games for Health Journal: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications, 8(2), 112-12. doi: https://doi.org/10.1089/g4h.2017.0106. View Source
- Pentz MA, Hieftje KD, Pendergrass TM, Brito SA, Liu M, Arora T, Tindle HA, Krishnan-Sarin S, Fiellin LE. A videogame intervention for tobacco product use prevention in adolescents. Addict Behav. 2019 Apr; 91:188-192.doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.11.016. PMID: 30477819. View Source
- Gariepy A, Hieftje K, Pendergrass T, Miller E, Dziura J, Fiellin L. Development and feasibility testing of a videogame intervention to reduce high-risk sexual behavior in Black and Hispanic adolescents. Games for Health Journal: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications, 2018 Oct 6, 7(6), 393-400. doi: 10.1089/g4h.2017.0142. PMID:30299980. View Source
- Camenga DR, Fiellin LE, Pendergrass T, Miller E, Pentz MA, Hieftje K. Adolescents' perceptions of flavored tobacco products, including E-cigarettes: A qualitative study to inform FDA tobacco education efforts through videogames. Addict Behav. 2018 Jul;82:189-194. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.03.021. PMID: 29573891; PMCID: PMC6699146. View Source
- Hieftje K, Pendergrass T, Montanaro E, Kyriakides T, Florsheim O, Fiellin L. But do they like it? Participant satisfaction and gameplay experience of a public health videogame intervention in adolescents. In 2018 IEEE 6th International Conference on Serious Games and Applications for Health (SeGAH) (pp. 1-7). IEEE. View Source
- Duncan LR, Hieftje KD, Pendergrass TM, Sawyer BG, Fiellin LE. Preliminary investigation of a videogame prototype for cigarette and marijuana prevention in adolescents. Subst Abus. 2018 March;39(3):275-279. doi: 10.1080/08897077.2018.1437862. PMID: 29425481; PMCID: PMC6085155. View Source
- Fiellin LE, Hieftje KD, Pendergrass TM, Kyriakides TC, Duncan LR, Dziura JD, Sawyer BG, Mayes L, Crusto CA, Forsyth BW, Fiellin DA. Video game intervention for sexual risk reduction in minority adolescents: Randomized controlled trial. J Med Internet Res. 2017;19(9):e314. PMCID: PMC5625130. View Source
- Hightow-Weidman LB, Muessig KE, Bauermeister JA, LeGrand S, Fiellin LE. The future of digital games for HIV prevention and care. Curr Opin HIV AIDS. 2017 Sep;12(5):501-507. doi: 10.1097/COH.0000000000000399. PMID: 28692490; PMCID: PMC5651998. View Source
- Hieftje K, Pendergrass T, Kyriakides TC, Gilliam W, Fiellin L. An evaluation of an educational video game on mathematics achievement in first grade students. Technologies, 5(2), 30. 2017. View Source
- Fiellin LE, Kyriakides TC, Hieftje KD, Pendergrass TM, Duncan LR, Dziura JD, Sawyer BG, Fiellin DA. The design and implementation of a randomized controlled trial of a risk reduction and human immunodeficiency virus prevention videogame intervention in minority adolescents: PlayForward: Elm City Stories. Clin Trials. 2016 Aug;13(4):400-8. doi: 10.1177/1740774516637871. PMID: 27013483; PMCID: PMC4942329. View Source
- Pendergrass TM, Hieftje K, Crusto CA, Montanaro E, Fiellin LE. If we build it, will they come? A qualitative study of key stakeholder opinions on the implementation of a videogame intervention for risk reduction in adolescents. Games Health J. 2016 Aug;5(4):279-85. doi: 10.1089/g4h.2015.0092. PMID: 27336205; PMCID: PMC4991582. View Source
- Hieftje, K, Duncan, L, Pendergrass T, Sawyer B, Fiellin LE. Development of a HIV prevention videogame: Lessons learned. International Journal of Serious Games. 2016; 3(2): p. 83-90. View Source
- Montanaro E, Fiellin LE, Fakhouri T, Kyriakides TC, Duncan LR. Using videogame apps to assess gains in adolescents' substance use knowledge: New opportunities for evaluating intervention exposure and content mastery. J Med Internet Res. 2015 Oct 28;17(10):e245. doi: 10.2196/jmir.4377. PMID: 26510775; PMCID: PMC4642786. View Source