Roger Vilardaga, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Duke University
Roger Vilardaga Viera, PhD is an Associate Professor at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University. He is also Affiliate Professor a the Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering at the University of Washington. Dr. Vilardaga studied psychology at the Universitat de Barcelona and received his doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno. He has contributed to the study and development of several digital interventions, including Mindful Daily, SmartQuit, Tummy Trials, Eyes Free Yoga, Mindful Powers, and Pain Tracker Self Management. He created and designed Learn to Quit, the first NIH-funded digital therapeutic to deliver smoking cessation treatment for individuals with serious mental illness. This application won the Gold W3 Award in 2016 by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts and the Silver Davey International Award in 2016 for best wellness and health application. His work has been featured in FastCompany, The Drum, Seattle K5 News and Psychiatric News. His laboratory has been funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Cancer Institute, the University of Washington Innovation Award, Pfizer, Twill. Inc., Limbix, Inc., and Duke University.
At Duke University he directs the Access to Behavioral Health for All (ABHA) Laboratory. The focus of the ABHA Laboratory is to ideate, develop, and test digital behavioral health interventions for underserved populations, such as individuals who experience persistent mental health symptoms, addiction, or chronic pain. The laboratory specializes in: (1) designing digital tools to foster behavioral health and psychological resilience, (2) the application of rigorous strategies to evaluate them, and (3) examining barriers and facilitators of digital health equity. The laboratory uses a multi-method approach that includes user-centered design research, small-n experimental designs, clinical trials methodology, digital phenotyping, and participatory research to better understand the behavior of digital therapeutics’ users. Dr. Vilardaga consults with Duke’s Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) where he provides thought leadership about digital therapeutics and serves as an investigator in several industry funded digital therapeutic trials. Dr. Vilardaga has served as ad-hoc reviewer for more than 25 scientific journals and 9 granting institutions. Currently he is a standing member of a study section for NIH’s Center for Scientific Review. Finally, Dr. Vilardaga is passionate about gardening with native plants and spending his summers in Spain with friends and family.
Selected Publications
- Vilardaga R, Thrul J, DeVito A, Kendzor DE, Sabo P, Khafif TC. Review of strategies to investigate low sample return rates in remote tobacco trials: A call to action for more user-centered design research. Addict Neurosci. 2023 Sep;7:100090. doi: 10.1016/j.addicn.2023.100090. PMID: 37424632; PMCID: PMC10327900.
- Browne J, Halverson TF, Vilardaga R. Engagement with a digital therapeutic for smoking cessation designed for persons with psychiatric illness fully mediates smoking outcomes in a pilot randomized controlled trial. Transl Behav Med. 2021 Sep 15;11(9):1717-1725. doi: 10.1093/tbm/ibab100. Erratum in: Transl Behav Med. 2022 May 26;12(5):722. PMID: 34347865; PMCID: PMC8571710.
- Vilardaga R, Rizo J, Ries RK, Kientz JA, Ziedonis DM, Hernandez K, McClernon FJ. Formative, multimethod case studies of learn to quit, an acceptance and commitment therapy smoking cessation app designed for people with serious mental illness. Transl Behav Med. 2019 Nov 25;9(6):1076-1086. doi: 10.1093/tbm/iby097. PMID: 30445507; PMCID: PMC7184916.
- Vilardaga R, Rizo J, Zeng E, Kientz JA, Ries R, Otis C, Hernandez K. User-centered design of Learn to Quit, a smoking cessation smartphone app for people with serious mental illness. JMIR Serious Games. 2018 Jan 16;6(1):e2. doi: 10.2196/games.8881. PMID: 29339346; PMCID: PMC5790963.