Our Mission
Mobile technology has the potential to radically improve the treatment of many disorders (e.g., alcohol use disorders, obesity, diabetes, and serious mental illness) and increase access to care. Our mission is to develop learning algorithms, statistical analyses and clinical trial designs that enable the best use of mobile technologies, including cell phones, sensors, and monitors, to deliver personalized and individualized behavioral interventions. In particular we focus on the evidence-based development of Just-In-Time Adaptive Interventions (JITAIs) in which real-time, passively or actively collected, information on the patient (e.g., Ecological Momentary Assessments: EMA) is used to inform the real-time delivery of intervention options (e.g., recommendations, information and prompts).
JITAIs are operationalized via decision rules that link a patient’s information to intervention options, specifying if, when, and what type/dose of an intervention should be offered. JITAIs may be used to improve self-care, support recovery, as well as an adjunctive therapy to either medications or counseling.
We are developing a suite of innovative learning algorithms, including treatment designs and data analysis methods to help investigators obtain and utilize empirical evidence necessary for developing high-quality JITAIs. These algorithms use empirical evidence obtained during the course of the intervention to improve and optimize the decision rules underpinning a JITAI.