Guest Lecture on Passive Data-Driven Digital Mental Health Assessment and Treatment by Nicholas Jacobson, 10 March 2023

Friday, 10 March 2023, 10:00 – 11:30 AM CET

About Dr. Nicholas Jacobson

Dr. Nick Jacobson is an assistant professor in the departments of Biomedical Data Science, Psychiatry, and Computer Science at Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine. He directs the AI and Mental Health: Innovation in Technology Guided Healthcare (AIM HIGH) Laboratory and has a strong interest in using technology to enhance the assessment and treatment of anxiety and depression. His work has focused on using passive sensor data from smartphones and wearable devices to improve precision assessment and provide personalized technology-based treatments. Dr. Jacobson has published 81 peer-reviewed articles and secured over $3 million as PI and over $20 million in funding as a co-Investigator.

About the Lecture

Mental health disorders are a leading cause of disability worldwide, yet 3 in 5 persons affected by these disorders do not receive minimally adequate care. Utilizing passively collected data in daily life, such as data from smartphones, wearables, and the internet, can enhance the assessment and treatment of mental health. This talk will cover how passive data can be used to accurately capture symptom severity and both rapid and long-term changes in symptoms. Additionally, the talk will discuss the use of technology-based interventions, such as digital therapeutics and chatbots, to deliver personalized and evidence-based treatments at population scales. The talk will also cover ongoing research to develop a generative chatbot that can respond dynamically to user input with a therapeutic response, using curated expert content and expert ratings over time. Overall, this research suggests that passive sensing has the potential to improve detection rates, inform targeted prevention interventions, and deliver just-in-time adaptive interventions.

We are pleased to invite you to join this guest lecture. Registration is not required. Please be aware that we will be recording this guest lecture and will be making it available in our teaching library. If you have any questions, please contact Ivana Cabalzar (icabalzar@ethz.ch) prior to the start of the guest lecture.

Prof. Dr. Tobias Kowatsch, Associate Professor for Digital Health Interventions, Institute for Implementation Science in Health Care, University of Zurich; Director, School of Medicine, University of St.Gallen (HSG); Scientific Director, Centre for Digital Health Interventions (CDHI), ETH Zurich & HSG; Principal Investigator, Future Health Technologies programme, Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), Singapore-ETH Centre, Singapore

Prof. Dr. Elgar Fleisch, Professor of Information Management, ETH Zürich; Professor of Technology Management, University of St.Gallen; Advisory Board Member, CDHI, ETH Zürich & University of St.Gallen; Principal Investigator, Future Health Technologies programme, Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), Singapore-ETH Centre, Singapore

Prof. Dr. Florian von Wangenheim, Professor of Technology Marketing, ETH Zurich & Advisory Board Member, CDHI; Principal Investigator, Future Health Technologies programme, Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE), Singapore-ETH Centre, Singapore

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