I am pleased and excited to announce the recently-launched Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH). CTBH is a P30 “Center of Excellence”, recently funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health.
In recent years, there has been an explosion of research focused on using technology in health care, including web- and mobile- health assessment and intervention tools, as well as smartphone sensors and smart environments for monitoring and promoting health behavior. This work has shown that technology-based therapeutic tools offer considerable promise for monitoring and responding to individuals’ health behavior in real-time. They may also function as important “clinician-extenders” or stand-alone tools, may be cost-effective and may offer countless opportunities for tailoring behavioral monitoring and intervention delivery in a manner that is optimally responsive to each individual’s profile and health behavior trajectory over time. Technology may also enable entirely new models of behavioral health care both within and outside of formal systems of care and thus offers the opportunity to revolutionize health care delivery.
As this field of technology and health is rapidly evolving, CTBH is designed to lead the field of research focused on leveraging existing and emerging technologies in the assessment of/delivery of interventions targeting substance use disorders and behavioral health. CTBH brings together a diverse interdisciplinary team of experts in the science of addiction and behavioral health/behavior change, emerging technologies, health economics, ethics, novel methodologies/analytics, dissemination and implementation science, regulation, privacy/security, and public policy. The core of CTBH is housed at the Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center, and is part of the Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School; but Center affiliates are based at institutions across the country. The organizational structure includes a leadership team, science and technology investigators, and advisory boards focused on key issues related to the science, dissemination, and implementation of technology-based behavioral health interventions.
CTBH initiatives are designed to enhance the quality, pace of achievement and impact of scientific research focused on innovation, rigorous evaluation, and strategic dissemination of technology-based therapeutic tools targeting substance use disorders and behavioral health. This work also offers considerable implications for managing the behavioral health dimensions of chronic disease management. Research conducted within the Center follows a “Stage Model” for intervention/systems development, ranging from research focused on prototype development and pilot testing, feasibility/acceptability testing, efficacy studies, effectiveness studies, and dissemination and implementation studies. This approach allows for each stage of analysis to inform other stages that are critical to the “community-friendliness” and real-world application of evidence-based therapeutic tools.
As part of the many initiatives of the CTBH, the Center is well-positioned to take a lead role in establishing conceptual and methodological frameworks to guide scientific research as well as sustainable dissemination and implementation efforts in this field. Presentations and papers generated from the Center’s Investigators and “expert team working groups”, as well as publicly available presentations from the Center’s outstanding advisory board members, will also help define the future of the field of technology and health. The Center also supports highly innovative pilot projects that offer great promise for rapidly moving the field forward in innovative and potentially transformative ways. Additionally, CTBH is designed to be the go-to resource for up-to-date, cutting edge information about emerging technologies, innovative methodologies and analytics, and novel dissemination and implementation strategies related to technology-delivered behavioral health interventions. (See subsequent sections on specific Center initiatives focused on the scientific and dissemination and implementation activities of the Center).
I am honored to have the opportunity to serve as Director of this innovative interdisciplinary research center as it seeks to lead transformations in delivery of evidence-based behavioral health care using technology.
Lisa Marsch, PhD
Center Director