DECEMBER 4, 2026
Michael V. Heinz, MD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Nicholas C. Jacobson, PhD
Associate Professor of Biomedical Data Science and Psychiatry, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
About the Presentation:
About the Presenters: Dr. Michael V. Heinz is an inpatient psychiatrist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) and an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Dr. Heinz completed his psychiatry residency at DHMC and completed a research fellowship in the Artificial Intelligence and Mental Health Lab at the Dartmouth College Center for Technology and Behavioral Health under the mentorship of Dr. Nicholas C. Jacobson. Dr. Heinz’s research interests include the development of scalable, digital technologies toward assessment and treatment of mental health disorders. Dr. Heinz has worked NIH-funded Tracking Depression Study using wearable passive sensors to better understand Major Depressive Disorder. Currently, Dr. Heinz’s research focuses on the use of generative AI for mental health intervention. Most recently, Dr. Heinz co-led the first randomized controlled trial evaluating Therabot, the first evidence-based AI-therapist.
Nick Jacobson is an associate professor in the departments of Biomedical Data Science and Psychiatry within the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health (CTBH) in the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. He directs the Treatment Development and Evaluation Core within CTBH. He directs the AI and Mental Health: Innovation in Technology Guided Healthcare (AIM HIGH) Laboratory.
Dr. Jacobson researches the use of technology to enhance both the assessment and treatment of anxiety and depression. His work has focused on (1) enhancing precision assessment of anxiety and depression using intensive longitudinal data, (2) conducting multimethod assessment utilizing passive sensor data from smartphones and wearable devices, and (3) providing scalable, personalized technology-based treatments utilizing smartphones. He has a strong interest in creating personalized just-in-time adaptive interventions and the quantitative tools that make this work possible. To date, Dr. Jacobson’s smartphone applications which assess and treat anxiety and depression have been downloaded and installed by more than 50,000 people in over 100 countries. Dr. Jacobson is the principal investigator of an R01 Awarded from the National Institute of Mental Health studying the use of personalized deep learning models to predict rapid changes in major depressive disorder symptoms using passive sensor data from smartphones and wearable devices.