Faculty Affiliates
Lynn E. Fiellin, MD
Lynn E. Fiellin, MD
Professor, Department of Biomedical Data Science and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Dr. Lynn Fiellin is a Professor with faculty appointments within the Department of Medicine and the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. She was previously a Professor of Medicine, at the Child Study Center, and the School of Public Health at Yale. She is the founding director of the play2PREVENT Lab, established 14 years ago with NIH funding. Specifically, her work focuses on developing and testing novel videogame interventions to promote health and reduce risk in youth and young adults. She has received funding from the NIH, the FDA, and the CVS Health Foundation to conduct this work. She and her team of researchers, game developers, youth and community partners have created and evaluated interactive evidence-based digital games addressing mental health, opioid misuse, smoking/vaping, and sexual health and HIV/STI prevention.
Most recently, she was awarded a five-year UG3-UH3 from NIDA as part of their national Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative to develop/evaluate a digital health game targeting opioid misuse prevention and mental health promotion in older adolescents. Her digital health game interventions are designed and built with input from adolescents at every step of development. They are evaluated by adolescents using established scientific methods, demonstrating that these engaging and evidence-informed games work in impacting the most critical health outcomes in adolescents.
Dr. Fiellin earned her M.D. degree from the Yale School of Medicine. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Yale/Yale-New Haven Hospital (YNHH) and was recognized for her excellence by being chosen as one of the Internal Medicine Chief Residents. She was then awarded NIDA Physician Scientist K12 career award and a prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Physician Faculty Scholar Program Award, which helped to launch her successful 21-year career as a clinical researcher. Dr. Fiellin rose through the academic ranks at Yale, while holding critical positions as one of the YNHH Firm Chiefs as well as leadership roles within the YNHH medical staff. She was named professor in 2020.
Dr. Fiellin has excelled in mentorship, particularly in mentorship of women. She has been a mentor to over 50 individuals, 90% of whom have been women, and in 2017, created the ForAGirl Summer Internship Program, an intensive summer program for community high school girls engaging them in hands-on research training and mentorship in the areas of STEM, medicine and research. She is a strong advocate for girls and women, was recognized as one of the Women of Innovation in the Research Innovation and Leadership Category by the Connecticut Technology Council, and just honored at the national Women in Medicine Summit with an IStandWithHer award in the category of SheforShe, an honor for women greater than 10 years from completion of training who have made significant contributions to fellow women in medicine.
Finally, Dr. Fiellin is an innovator and an entrepreneur. She is the founder of Playbl, Inc., a start-up company that focuses on the marketing and distribution of her portfolio of the 5 evidence-informed digital health games developed in her Lab with the goal of getting them into the hands of all adolescents in an effective and sustainable way.
Selected Publications
- Boomer TP, Larkin K, Duncan LR, Fernandes CF, Fiellin LE. A serious video game targeting HIV testing and counseling: A randomized controlled trial. J Adolesc Health. 2023 Oct 6:S1054-139X(23)00426-3. doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2023.08.016. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 37815773. View Source
- Patel SV, Cance JD, Bonar EE, Carter PM, Dickerson DL, Fiellin LE, Fernandes CSF, Palimaru AI, Boomer TMP, Saldana L, Singh RR, Tinius E, Walton MA, Youn S, Young S, Philbrick S, Lambdin BH. Accelerating solutions for the overdose crisis: An effectiveness-implementation hybrid protocol for the HEAL Prevention Cooperative. Prev Sci. 2023 Oct;24(Suppl 1):40-49. doi: 10.1007/s11121-022-01465-2. PMID: 36399222; PMCID: PMC9673891. View Source
- Cance JD, Adams ET, D'Amico EJ, Palimaru A, Fernandes CSF, Fiellin LE, Bonar EE, Walton MA, Komro KA, Knight D, Knight K, Rao V, Youn S, Saavedra L, Ridenour TA, Deeds B. Leveraging the full continuum of care to prevent opioid use disorder. Prev Sci. 2023 Oct;24(Suppl 1):30-39. doi: 10.1007/s11121-023-01545-x. PMID: 37261635. View Source
- Yule AM, Fernandes CF, Stormshak EA, Yang Y, Shelley L, Fiellin LE, Larkin K, Ridenour TA, Saavedra LM, Kelleher K, Feng X, Walton MA, Bonar EE. Multidisciplinary strategies for preventing opioid misuse and escalation by targeting mental health symptoms and conditions. Prev Sci. 2023 Oct;24(Suppl 1):77-87. doi: 10.1007/s11121-023-01556-8. PMID: 37266870; PMCID: PMC10236392. View Source
- Pendergrass Boomer TM, Hoerner LA, Fernandes CF, Maslar A, Aiudi S, Kyriakides TC, Fiellin LE. A digital health game to prevent opioid misuse and promote mental health in adolescents in school-based health settings: Protocol for the PlaySmart game randomized controlled trial. PLoS One. 2023 Sep 8;18(9):e0291298. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0291298. PMID: 37683047; PMCID: PMC10490848. View Source
- Bteddini DS, LeLaurin JH, Chi X, Hall JM, Theis RP, Gurka MJ, Lee JH, Mobley EM, Khalil GE, Polansky CJ, Kellner AM, Fahnlander AM, Kelder SH, Fiellin LE, Gutter MS, Shenkman EA, Salloum RG. Mixed methods evaluation of vaping and tobacco product use prevention interventions among youth in the Florida 4-H program. Addict Behav. 2023 Jun;141:107637. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2023.107637. PMID: 36753933. View Source
- Aneni K, Gomati de la Vega I, Jiao MG, Funaro MC, Fiellin LE. Evaluating the validity of game-based assessments measuring cognitive function among children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Prog Brain Res. 2023;279:1-36. doi: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2023.02.002. Epub 2023 Mar 14. PMID: 37661161. 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Duncan LR, Hieftje KD, Culyba S, Fiellin LE. Game playbooks: Tools to guide multidisciplinary teams in developing videogame-based behavior change interventions. Transl Behav Med. 2014 Mar;4(1):108-16. doi: 10.1007/s13142-013-0246-8. PMID: 24653781; PMCID: PMC3958589. View Source
- Hieftje K, Duncan LR, Fiellin LE. Novel methods to collect meaningful data from adolescents for the development of health interventions. Health Promot Pract. 2014 Sep;15(5):714-22. doi: 10.1177/1524839914521211. PMID: 24519998; PMCID: PMC4267885. View Source
- Camenga DR, Hieftje KD, Fiellin LE, Edelman EJ, Rosenthal MS, Duncan LR. The use of message framing to promote sexual risk reduction in young adolescents: A pilot exploratory study. Health Educ Res. 2014 Apr;29(2):360-6. doi: 10.1093/her/cyt156. PMID: 24452229; PMCID: PMC3959207. View Source