Learn about exciting recent and upcoming activities and resources from the NIH-supported, Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH) from Dr. Lisa Marsch, CTBH Director.

Thank you for your interest in the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH). We are pleased to share this Winter 2013 newsletter with you to highlight several exciting recent and upcoming activities and resources from our Center.

CTBH is supported by a P30 “Center of Excellence” grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. CTBH is housed at Dartmouth College, but Center affiliates are based at institutions across the country. Researchers at CTBH are engaged in a wide array of research activities focused on the development, evaluation, and dissemination of technology-based therapeutic tools targeting substance use disorders and behavioral health. These tools leverage web, mobile, and sensor technologies that may greatly enhance individuals’ ability to monitor and successfully manage their health behavior, anytime and anywhere. Technology-based therapeutic and care coordination systems offer considerable promise for enabling entirely new models of healthcare both within and outside formal systems of care.

The research of CTBH Investigators ranges from the assessment, prevention, treatment and recovery support of chronic substance use disorders, to mental illness, to HIV and other infectious diseases, to the behavioral health dimensions of effective management of chronic physical disease. This work includes diverse populations, ranging from children, adolescents, young adults, persons with substance use disorders, tobacco-dependent individuals, persons with serious mental illness, homeless individuals, aging populations, parents, and veterans. And, this work includes many phases of research, spanning from early stage prototype development/pilot testing of a technology-based innovation, to controlled efficacy trials, to community-based studies of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness, to research assessing optimal models for implementing empirically-supported technology-based therapeutic tools in various systems of care.

This Center serves as a national resource for researchers, technologists, consumers, service providers, service payors, and policy makers interested in technology-based interventions targeting behavioral health.
In this newsletter, we highlight a few of our recent activities from our interdisciplinary collaborations. We invite you to also explore our website to learn more about the Center’s ongoing work.

We are especially pleased to highlight outcomes from our Center’s recent partnership with the National Council on Community Behavioral HealthCare assessing community behavioral health agencies’ readiness to adopt technology-based therapeutic tools. These data, obtained from over 400 respondents in community behavioral health agencies, underscore the high levels of interest in embracing technology in these care settings. They also highlight important considerations related to the successful implementation and sustained use of technology-based therapeutic tools in these settings. Read More.

Also related to our Center’s implementation research activities, we feature a just-completed, multi-site study evaluating processes associated with successful implementation of a mobile substance abuse recovery support tool. This collaborative study with researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison was designed to inform the development of a “Road Map” or set of guidelines for organizations to implement mobile therapeutic support tools. Read More.

As part of our Center’s ongoing research focused on methodological frameworks to guide the development and evaluation of technology-based therapeutic tools, we are pleased to highlight a just-published article by Center Affiliates that discusses the utility of single-case experimental designs in evaluating technology-based behavioral health interventions. This article, published in the February 2013 issue of the Journal of Medical Internet Research, highlights this approach as an example of a rigorous experimental design that requires less time and resources than a randomized, controlled trial. Read More.

CTBH also just funded (via a competitive application and review process) a number of innovative new pilot projects, including a study to conduct formative groundwork for the development of mobile communication approaches to reach, engage, and provide support to parents with co-occurring substance use disorders and serious mental illness. To view all pilot projects funded to date, check out the pilot project page of our website.

We invite you join in our many activities of our Center. We welcome you to view video presentations on our website from an interdisciplinary team of experts, who are leaders in a variety of areas of paramount importance to the field of technology and behavioral health.

Also, our Center affiliates have given over 50 presentations all over the country and internationally in the past year, and we invite you to come attend an upcoming presentation.

For researchers working in this field, please consider submitting a manuscript in response to a Call for Papers for a new Special Issue to be edited by Center Affiliates in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

And, be sure to follow our “Eye on Innovation” blog, with regular updates about innovations in the field of technology and behavioral health!

As the Director of CTBH, I am honored to share this newsletter on behalf of an outstanding team of researchers and look forward to sharing much more exciting work to come.
Please feel free to contact us. We always welcome comments and feedback!

Lisa Marsch, PhD
Center Director