Thank you for your interest in the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH). We are pleased to share this Fall 2012 newsletter with you to highlight an array of exciting recent and upcoming activities and resources from our Center.
As a P30 “Center of Excellence” funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, CTBH is designed to be a national resource designed to enhance the quality, pace of achievement, and impact of innovative scientific research focused on the development, evaluation, and dissemination of technology-based therapeutic tools. These tools harness existing and emerging technologies (e.g., Internet, mobile devices, sensors) to deliver evidence-based interventions using effective learning and informational technologies and are designed to collectively lead to transformations in the delivery of evidence-based behavioral health care.
We have the honor to bring together an interdisciplinary array of experts in this Center. As highlighted in this newsletter, we are excited about the products of our interdisciplinary collaborations. A few of these activities and resources are highlighted below, but we invite you to explore the full contents of this newsletter and our website for much more detail about our work.
CTBH Affiliates are leading almost 30 actively funded research projects at all stages of development, evaluation, and dissemination of technology-based therapeutic tools. And, we continue to expand the scope of our research activities in a wide array of areas, including new research projects in topics ranging from gaming-based interventions – to integrated assessments and interventions for co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders delivered on mobile devices – to the science of implementing and promoting sustained use of empirically-supported, technology-based treatment and recovery management innovations in systems of care.
As part of our newly launched activities, we are especially pleased to announce recent receipt of a development center grant from the U.S. Department of Education focused on leveraging technology to enhance the availability, consumer-centeredness, service quality, expansion, effectiveness, and efficiency of an evidence-based supported employment intervention.
CTBH also recently funded (via a competitive application and review process) a number of innovative new pilot projects. These pilots include those focused on early stage development and prototype testing of wearable and mobile device-based sensors (monitoring behavioral and physiological states), as well as research focused on optimal experimental designs in developing and testing technology-based therapeutic tools.
CTBH Affiliates have been traveling all over the country, as well as internationally, leading workshops and delivering presentations to diverse audiences on research related to the mission of the Center. We have additionally been extensively contributing to the published literature on research methods and findings in this area of research. As part of these publications, Center Affiliates recently edited a just-published Special Issue of the Journal of Dual Diagnosis on the application of technology to psychiatric and/or substance use disorders. And, we also pleased to announce a Call for Papers for a new Special Issue to be edited by Center Affiliates in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.
Additionally, we are very pleased to announce a just-executed, publishing agreement with Oxford University Press (to be edited by our Center’s Director, Dr. Lisa Marsch, and Core Directors, Drs. Sarah Lord and Jesse Dallery) to develop an edited volume designed to define the state of scientific research related to the development, experimental evaluation, and effective dissemination of technology-based therapeutic tools targeting behavioral health. This edited book will include invited chapters by a diverse interdisciplinary group of authors who are leaders in an array of issues of paramount importance to the field of technology and behavioral health.
We have also had the privilege to host a wide array of speakers with expertise in areas such as ethics and technology, health information technologies and healthcare disparities, relational virtual agents, ubiquitous computing, wearable sensors and affective computing, healthcare reform and technology, and participatory mobile health approaches. We invite you to view these video presentations on our website.
We are additionally enjoying a partnership with the National Council for Behavioral Health via our recent collaborative launch of a national survey of community-based behavioral health providers on their use of technology-based therapeutic tools into their systems of care, as well as their readiness to adopt new technology-based innovations in their care settings. To date, we have obtained rich data from several hundred programs and counting! Stay tuned for results in our next newsletter.
Finally, we are pleased to announce openings for 2 post-doctoral positions within our Center. We welcome applications from new PhDs who intend to develop a research career focused on the development, evaluation, and dissemination of technology-based therapeutic tools targeting substance use disorders and/or other areas of behavioral health. Details are provided on our website.
As the Director of CTBH, I am proud and honored to share this newsletter with you and look forward to sharing much more exciting work to come.
Please feel free to contact us. We welcome your comments and feedback!
Lisa Marsch, PhD
Center Director