Learn about exciting recent and upcoming activities and resources from the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH) from Dr. Lisa Marsch, CTBH Director.
It is my privilege to serve as the Director of the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH). CTBH is an NIH-funded “Center of Excellence” designed to serve as a national resource to ensure that science informs the development, evaluation, and sustainable implementation of technology (web, mobile)-based therapeutic tools. Our interdisciplinary team has had the opportunity to develop, evaluate, refine and implement web and mobile interventions targeting behavioral phenomena ranging from substance use and abuse, mental health, risk-taking, chronic pain management, medication adherence, diet, exercise, diabetes and other chronic disease management, and smoking. This work has ranged from studies of feasibility, acceptability, efficacy, efficacy-effectiveness, effectiveness (including multi-site effectiveness trials), cost-effectiveness, and implementation research in many contexts, including addiction and mental health specialty programs, medical specialty programs, hospitals, schools, criminal justice settings, primary care, and direct to consumer online. As the Director of this Center, I have been struck by the large impact behavioral change interventions delivered via technology-based platforms can have on a wide array of health outcomes and health behavior across very diverse populations and settings. Given the widespread availability of web and mobile device access worldwide, technology-based behavior change tools delivered on mobile platforms enable widespread reach and scalability of evidence-based behavioral interventions.
In this newsletter, we’d like to share some highlights of our recent activities, including some new resources that may be of interest to you and your work. We are especially excited to inform you of a just-published book edited by CTBH leadership and published by Oxford University Press. We were fortunate to engage chapter authors who are top leaders in their fields to contribute to this volume defining the state of the science of the development, experimental evaluation, and effective implementation of technology-based therapeutic tools.
We also describe three newly funded projects highlighting the broad spectrum of CTBH activities, ranging from a web-based program to prevent abuse of prescription opioids among adolescents — a mobile video intervention to promote HIV testing in emergency departments — to a study leveraging technology to facilitate the integration of addiction treatment and behavioral health care into primary care.
Our CTBH team continues to travel around the country and internationally to share the science behind behavioral health technologies and how they can transform healthcare service delivery models. In this newsletter, we highlight our partnership with the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA) on a multi-part series of regional summits around the U.S. on health information technology and recovery. Please follow our full array presentations and join us if one comes to your neighborhood! In addition to this work, we are also expanding our work in the policy sector. As one example of this, I recently agreed to serve on the Advanced Health Models and Meaningful Use Workgroup of the Health Information Technology Policy Committee for the U.S. Office of the National Coordinator.
As always, we will regularly update our website with important updates from this work.
We are looking forward to what the year ahead holds, as we work to use science to create innovation in healthcare. We hope these resources are of benefit to you and always welcome your comments and feedback.
With all best wishes for 2015,
Lisa Marsch, PhD
Center Director