CBITs provides a unique home for research and education relating to Behavioral Intervention Technologies (BITs). BITs are applications of behavioral intervention theories and strategies through the use of technology features to address target behaviors in support of health and mental health. Examples include web-based, mHealth and sensor-based interventions.

New at CBITs
Content from our SBM 2012 presentation now available.
Congratulations to Evan Goulding, Ph.D., for receiving the CBITs Pilot Award!
View our checklist for creating your own BIT.
View position openings at CBITs.
Sign me up for CBITs emails.

Inaugurated in September of 2011, the Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies (CBITs) is supported by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in collaboration with the Department of Preventive Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, and Department of Medical Social Sciences.

Vision Statement

To become an international leader in Behavioral Intervention Technology research and education

Mission Statement

In the first 5 years, the Center will accomplish the following:

  • Create and evaluate innovative patient-facing Behavioral Intervention Technologies (BITs) that support behaviors known to improve medical and mental health outcomes.
  • Disseminate BITs through collaborations with healthcare providers and consumer organizations, engage policy makers and support educational outreach.
  • Improve understanding of human-technology interaction and apply this knowledge to behavioral intervention technology design.
  • Increase treatment options to reduce health disparities in underserved populations.
  • Develop educational curricula that will support and define this emerging field and shape the next generation of researchers and professionals.

Join Us

CBITs will be recruiting outstanding scientists for full-time faculty appointments. For information, view current opportunities or contact Dr. Mohr.

View funding and job opportunities Join our email list

CBITs
Administration

Faculty
Members

External
Collaborators

Center Projects

« Current Research

External Collaborations

« Current Research

Our Services

We at CBITs are researchers, developers, programmers and clinicians with expertise in developing behavioral intervention technologies. Our unique skills have been honed through the development of BITs in multiple technological platforms (mobile phone, web, etc) and with a variety of intervention populations. Our knowledge, skills and expertise are available to researchers, developers and health care providers within and outside of Northwestern.

Please browse our presentations and videos for more detailed explanations.

We provide consultation in the development of technology assisted (e.g. web-based, mobile, etc.) behavioral intervention technologies. This includes assisting in the early planning and design of the interventions, programming the interventions and early alpha testing to ensure technical reliability. We have developed a helpful Create-Your-BIT checklist to begin this process. This service also includes the use and adaptation of Purple, an extensible framework for BIT creation, deployment and monitoring developed by CBITs. The development of BITs may include:

  • Programming and development of technology based interventions based on our extensible platform, Purple.
  • Developing technology assisted assessment tools either for technology based interventions or more traditional interventions.
  • Developing appropriate usability testing protocols involving alpha, beta and release candidate testing. This may involve developing protocols for others to run their own usability testing or it may result in the Center handling the usability testing and data collection.
  • Developing data structure and management plan for intervention data collection that addresses security and analyses needs. It may also involve consultation on appropriate site hosting, handling the data storage and secure transmission of data and software.
  • Providing ideas about harnessing the newest technologies or technological solutions to existing problems (e.g. managing mobile technology battery life).
  • Training and supervising on the use of our telecoach and telephone-CBT treatment protocols, as well as helping develop clinician-administered support for technology interventions.

For more information on services available, please contact Jenna Duffecy, Ph.D. at 312-503-1900 or j-duffecy@northwestern.edu

CBITs Presentations

Below are select materials and recordings from CBITs presentations.

Purple: the Extensible Framework. In the following videos you will learn about how the Purple Development Environment has been applied in mobile phone and web based interventions developed by CBITs, and how you can use Purple for your own studies.

Society of Behavioral Medicine 2012 Annual Meeting Workshop. In this section, you will find handouts and the Prezi presentation from our workshop at SBM's April 2012 conference.

Create Your Own Bit Checklist. A PDF guide to the early planning and design phases in creating technology-assisted interventions.

Purple: The Extensible Framework

Making the development of behavioral intervention technologies simple and fast

CBITs Purple framework is the foundation of our behavioral intervention technologies development program. Built over time to accommodate multiple research projects and interventions, it is a bundle of development strategies, server and client-side technologies, and authorship tools that allows for the speedy creation and management of behavioral interventions.

The Purple framework covers the entire process chain from the creation and design of an intervention to the deployment of the intervention to data collection.

THE PURPLE TOOLKIT
Lesson and Tool Authoring Recruitment Tools
Social Network Management SmartPhone App Tools
Patient Management & Recruitment Assessments and Surveying
Data Mining Tailored Feedback Tools
Reports, Graphs & Visualization The Purple Intervention Player
See Purple screen-shots for details

Contact Jenna Duffecy, Ph.D. at j-duffecy@northwestern.edu about how CBITs and Purple can help you develop your intervention

Purple: The Extensible Framework

As part of our infrastructural development, our intervention creation process has migrated away from producing technologically standalone websites to producing a fully modular system that can be used to create focused interventions. Mobilyze and Project Onward represent instances of our extensible system that can be used to create tools, author lessons, manage users, and export intervention specific data in a statistically analyzable form.

Content Authorship Tools: Using standardized tools, intervention administrators can author and disseminate new lesson and tool content as needed. This is as simple to use as any word processing program
User management: Each intervention will allow coaches and/or administrators to access all user intervention data.
Data export: Administrators and study managers can export data needed for research as well as pre-creating reports for analysis.
Discussion Management: Content managers can author discussion questions to shape site discourse. These questions can be connected directly to educational content or deployed based on other rules such as time or order
Assessment Tools: Users can receive assessments to track site use and study outcomes using standardized surveying tools. Questionnaires are designed to facilitate easier review of data throughout the intervention

Web-based Interventions

« Current Research

Mobile-phone Interventions

« Current Research

Programmable Virtual Humans

Principal Investigator: David C. Mohr, Ph.D.
(Funded by P20-MH09031 NIMH Developing Centers for Intervention and/or Services Research)


Text-based interactions, the backbone of most BIT tools, are not well-suited to training interpersonal skills. This is a significant failing, given that interpersonal skills deficits are significant risk factors and consequences of depression, and that patients who receive interpersonal skills training in the context of cognitive behavioral therapy show greater improvement. The aim of this project is to develop programmable virtual humans that will 1) allow the patient to interact with an ideal interlocutor, and 2) be a representation of him/herself, to test out interpersonal behaviors, even receiving feedback on the effects of different ways of interacting. Two pilot trials will 1) evaluate these technologies in the context of an internet treatment for depression in adults and 2) evaluate these technologies in the context of an internet treatment for prevention of depression in adolescents.


« Current Research

Technology Assisted Intervention for the Treatment and Prevention of Depression

Principal Investigator: David C. Mohr, Ph.D.
(Funded by P20-MH09031 NIMH Developing Centers for Intervention and/or Services Research)


Depression is common and disabling. Advances in telecommunications have greatly increased the possibilities for delivering behavioral interventions. Unfortunately, the initial results in this emerging field indicate that much work remains before viable systems can be implemented clinically. The mission of this Center is to develop and pilot novel systems of care that can provide efficacious, scalable, cost-effective, patient friendly behavioral interventions technologies (BITs) for the treatment and prevention of depression.
The Center's model proposes that adherence and efficacy can be enhanced by increasing support from humans, creating greater connectedness to patients in their environments, and developing new interfaces that are more conducive to promoting complex behavior change. To this end, we will propose a Technology Development Unit that will develop and refine three new technologies that address each of these areas, two pilot trials that will test novel interventions in the treatment and prevention of depression, and two measurement projects that will develop and evaluate metrics.
The Technology Development Unit will focus on the following three technologies: Mobile Phone Sensing, Social Networking, and Programmable Virtual Humans.
Two pilot trials will evaluate these technologies in the context of an internet treatment for depression in adults as well as in adolescents. Measurement projects will, using data collected in the pilot trials, evaluate measurement in two critical areas for BITs: adherence and cost-effectiveness.


« Center Projects
« Web-based Interventions

Mobilyze! Mobile Phone Sensing

Principal Investigator: David C. Mohr, Ph.D.
(Funded by P20-MH09031 NIMH Developing Centers for Intervention and/or Services Research)


The aim of this project is to conduct feasibility and beta-testing, and to refine a mobile phone intervention that creates a continuous connection with the patient, supplying the behavioral intervention system with information on location, activity, soc\al context, and mood. These data will be interpreted continuously using a "machine learner" to determine patient state (e.g. activity level, social context, etc.) to identify when a patient is adherent or non-adherent with treatment goals and behavioral prescriptions (e.g. behavioral activation activities, completion of treatment homework, adherence to treatment procedures), and to contact patients at critical moments to ensure adherence to behavioral treatment prescriptions.










« Center Projects
« Mobile-phone Interventions

Tech-Based Depression and Anxiety Treatment for Youth in High Risk Environments

Principal Investigator: Michelle N. Burns, Ph.D.
(Funded by K08 MH094441-01A1 NIH Mentored Clinical Scientist Research Career Development Award)


The aim of this research program is to: 1) identify context-specific risk factors for anxiety and depression in vulnerable youth; 2) identify treatment targets accordingly; and 3) develop an engaging, accessible intervention tailored to vulnerable youth with depression and anxiety. The intervention, delivered via a mobile phone application, the Internet, and brief telephone support, will use validated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques enhanced by minority stress approaches to mental health disparities and more recent advances in transdiagnostic CBT.


« Current Research
« Mobile-phone Interventions

Social Networking for Depression Treatment and Prevention

Principal Investigator: David C. Mohr, Ph.D.
(Funded by P20-MH09031 NIMH Developing Centers for Intervention and/or Services Research)


The aim of this project is to conduct feasibility and beta-testing, and to refine an online peer network, which, using social network theory, engineers interactions in a closed social network to strengthen bonds among networked peers, create accountability for each patient's actions, foster a sense of responsibility towards other networked peers, and promote prosocial behavior with a specific goal of increasing adherence to the behavioral intervention.


« Center Projects
« Web-based Interventions
« Social Networking

Project Onward

Principal Investigator: David C. Mohr, Ph.D.
(Funded by Development Funds through NCI grant 5P30CA060553; The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, PI: Steven T. Rosen)


Nearly 65% of those with cancer diagnoses will survive for at least 5 years, with approximately 10.5 million cancer survivors in the United States. The time of transition for cancer patients, from active treatment to survivorship, has been identified as a time of high risk for depression and anxiety. The internet promises to provide inexpensive access to mental health treatment at any time of the day or night. Unfortunately, the potential for internet delivered services has not been realized. Studies examining treatments that simply provide access to an internet site commonly result in very high dropout after the first site visit, and typically little or no improvement in target symptoms. We have designed, constructed, and are piloting a prototype of an online intervention, which we call “Onward,� that functionally and synergistically integrates an individual Internet intervention and an Internet support group for the treatment of depression among cancer survivors during reentry. Onward was conceptualized and designed based upon two theoretical models to enhance adherence and improve learning of self-management skills. Functionality aimed at maintaining adherence is based on our model, “Supportive Accountability,� which indicates that patients are more likely to adhere to and use an eHealth intervention if they know that they will have to account for that use or non-use at a future date. The field of education has developed well supported models of online collaborative learning, which we have harnessed to design functionality that supports intersubjective or group cognitive processes that can enhance learning.







« Center Projects
« Web-based Interventions
« Social Networking

Mobile Intervention to Engage Patients and Providers in Antidepressant Treatment

Principal Investigator: David C. Mohr, Ph.D.
(Funded by 1 R34 MH095907-01)


Major depressive disorder (MDD) is common and imposes a very high societal burden yet outcomes in primary care are poor. Two principal reasons for the poor outcomes in primary care are poor patient adherence to antidepressant medications (ADMs) and the failure of physicians to provide guideline-congruent care. Taken together, this suggests that there are three potential targets of intervention: improving patient adherence to ADMs, improving PCP adherence to treatment guidelines, and improving the flow of information from the patients to PCPs. The goal of this project is to develop and pilot a mobile smartphone delivered intervention, MedLink, that will improve ADM care by providing ADM adherence monitoring and support to the patient, feedback on patient adherence and response to treatment to the primary care team through automated links to patient's electronic medical record (EMR), and information to both patients and providers on guideline-congruent care personalized to the patient's response to ADM.


« Center Projects
« Mobile-phone Interventions
« Medication Adherence

A Mobile Technology Based intervention to Improve Adherence to Antipsychotic Medication

Principal Investigator: Julie Kreyenbuhl, Pharm.D., Ph.D.
Institution: University of Maryland School of Medicine
(Funded by R34 MH094555)


Up to 60% of individuals with schizophrenia do not take their antipsychotic medications as prescribed, which can lead to symptom relapse, decreased functioning, hospitalization, and increased healthcare costs. Whereas a variety of internet- and mobile phone-based applications have been developed to improve health outcomes such as medication adherence for a number of medical and psychiatric disorders, no such applications have been developed for individuals with schizophrenia. We will utilize the R34 mechanism to develop and evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of an ecological momentary intervention (EMI), which is integrated into an individuals' daily life where it is most relevant, for improving antipsychotic adherence. Primary features of the EMI that will be installed on mobile SmartPhones include: development of an interactive tool that provides individuals with reminders to take their medications as prescribed, queries them on their intentions to take their medication or not, collects real-time psychiatric symptom and side effect data that can be displayed for individuals and their clinicians, and provides individuals with the capability of communicating with their clinicians about problems they may be experiencing with their medications. In addition to gathering preliminary data on whether the intervention improves antipsychotic adherence, we will also evaluate whether individuals' levels of positive and negative psychotic symptoms and various domains of neuropsychological functioning correlate with the feasibility of using the program and its overall acceptability by individuals. Completion of this developmental study will enable us to develop and refine the research strategies to be utilized in a subsequent larger-scale study of the intervention.


« External Collaborations
« Mobile-phone Interventions
« Medication Adherence

Heart to HAART:
Smartphone Intervention to Improve HAART Adherence for Drug Users

Principal Investigator: Seth S. Himelhoch, M.D., M.P.H.
Institution: University of Maryland School of Medicine
(Funded by R34 DA032411)


Individuals who use drugs have greater difficulty adhering to Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) compared to non-drug users. As sustained adherence is critical to reducing HIV related morbidity and mortality, innovative and potentially sustainable treatment strategies that can optimize the durability of adherence enhancing interventions among individuals who use drugs is urgently needed. Increasingly, interventions using communication technologies (e.g., smart phones) to assess and enhance treatments are being used for a variety of somatic, mental health and substance abuse conditions. The goal of this study to use the stage model of behavioral therapy research to adapt, further develop, complete preliminary usability and pilot testing of a smart phone based intervention called HEART (Helping Enhance Adherence to Retroviral therapy using Technology) to HAART, to enhance, promote and improve long-term adherence to HAART among HIV infected drug users in the non-methadone maintenance setting. If shown to be acceptable and effective HEART to HAART will introduce a fundamentally new method of HAART medication self-management and provide a tailored, potentially sustainable and less cost intensive intervention that can increase adherence among HIV infected drug users over the long term.


« Current Research
« Mobile-phone Interventions
« Medication Adherence

Integrated Tele-Mental Health Intervention for Depression in Primary Care

Principal Investigator: David C. Mohr, Ph.D.
(Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health R34-MH078922)


To date, two telecommunications technologies have been explored to deliver telemental health interventions: telephone-administered psychotherapy and web-based internet therapy. Telephone administered psychotherapy has repeatedly been shown to produce significant reductions in depression as well as very low rates of attrition (mean attrition rate = 7.5%). Internet treatments for depression, while promising, have several drawbacks. Effect sizes have been small, in part because many people do not return to the website. Interventions that rely primarily on one technology are limited by the disadvantages of that technology. The Technology Assisted Behavioral Intervention (TABI) utilizes web-based internet intervention, enhanced by additional telecommunications technologies including e-mail and telephone support. To evaluate the incremental value, this randomized controlled trial enrolled primary care patients with major depressive disorder to either access to an interactive internet intervention, with and without 12 weeks of telephone and email support, and a 6-week wait list control. Primary outcomes include depression and adherence.









« Center Projects
« Web-based Interventions

Randomized Trial of Telephone versus Face-to-Face Administration of CBT for Depression in Primary Care Patients

Principal Investigator: David C. Mohr, Ph.D.
(Funded by 5R01MH059708-11)


Administering psychotherapy over the telephone may overcome many barriers associated with failure to initiate treatment and attrition from treatment. A number of recent studies have shown that telephone- administered treatments are effective at reducing depression, well accepted by patients, able to extend treatment to patients who experience significant barriers including disabilities. Furthermore, telephone administered psychotherapies are likely associated with low rates of attrition, compared to treatments delivered face-to-face. This study compares a 16-week telephone-administered cognitive behavioral therapy (T-CBT) intervention to 16 weeks of face-to-face CBT (FtF-CBT) for primary care patients who meet criteria for depression.


« Center Projects

Developing Telephone CBT for HIV Related Depression

Principal Investigator: Seth S. Himelhoch, M.D., M.P.H.
Institution: University of Maryland School of Medicine
(Funded by R34 MH080630)


Up to 40% of individuals receiving medical care for HIV meet DSM-IV criteria for co- occurring depressive disorder. Individuals with HIV and depressive disorders, compared to those with HIV alone, have been shown to have worse adherence to taking antiretroviral medication, increased HIV related morbidity and among woman a higher mortality. Previous research suggests that mental health interventions may lead to improved depressive and HIV related outcomes. However because many HIV infected depressed individuals may have trouble accessing mental health services, there is an urgent need for treatment trials to assess whether treatment of depression targeting patients in urban HIV care settings will result in both improved depressive and HIV related outcomes. The goal of this project is to use the stage model of behavioral therapy research to adapt, further develop and pilot test a telephone based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention targeting HIV infected depressed individuals receiving care in adult outpatient HIV clinics. This application has two aims consistent with stage 1A and stage 1B of the stage of behavioral therapy research. First, we will adapt and further develop (Stage 1A) the telephone based CBT intervention using iterative feedback from multiple viewpoints --patients, providers and experts. Second, we will test the preliminary effectiveness (Stage 1B) of the adapted telephone psychotherapy. A total of 60 HIV infected, depressed individuals receiving care at an urban, outpatient HIV clinic will be randomly assigned to receive either the CBT telephone psychotherapy intervention or a non-directive telephone based therapy. The results will provide preliminary data on whether the telephone psychotherapy intervention for HIV infected depressed individuals is effective in reducing depression. The results will also be used to determine feasibility, accessibility, and generate a more accurate estimate of the needed sample size for future effectiveness trials.


« Current Research
« Telephone Therapy

Telephone IPT Intervention for HIV-Infected Rural Persons

Principal Investigator:Timothy Heckman, Ph.D.
Institution: Ohio University
(Funded by R01 MH087462)


Compared to their urban counterparts, HIV-rural persons are more likely to be diagnosed with depression, less likely to seek assistance from mental health professionals, and appear to have shorter periods of survival. A pilot RCT recently showed that a 6-session telephone-delivered, interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) intervention reduced depressive symptoms in 79 HIV- infected rural persons (Ransom, Heckman, et al., 2008, Psychiatric Services). This follow-up RCT will enroll 180 persons living with HIV/AIDS in rural counties in the United States who are diagnosed with depression via telephone interviews. Participants will complete self-administered surveys at pre-intervention, post- intervention, and 4- and 8-month follow-up that assess depressive symptoms (the primary outcome measure), interpersonal problems, social support, and ART adherence. Participants will also provide weekly data (for 41 weeks) via interactive voice response (IVR) systems that assess depressive symptoms (41 weeks) and therapeutic alliance (9 weeks). Ninety (n=90) participants will be randomly assigned to a 9-session, one-on- one, telephone-delivered, IPT intervention and 90 will be assigned to a usual care comparison group. Linear mixed models (LMM) will test if IPT participants report greater reductions in depressive symptoms compared to usual care controls. Analyses of reliable change will test if a greater proportion of IPT participants report clinically-significant reductions in depressive symptoms compared to usual care controls. Using weekly data collected via IVR systems, time series analyses will test if IPT participants report greater decreases in depressive symptoms over a 41-week follow-up period compared to usual care control. Mixed models analyses will assess the importance of therapeutic alliance in telephone-delivered IPT.


« Current Research
« Telephone Therapy

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E-mail: info@demolink.org

CBITs Administration

  • David C. Mohr, Ph.D.
  • CBITs Director
    Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine
  • 312-503-1403

  • Mark Begale
  • Technology Core Leader
  • 312-503-3117

  • Jenna Duffecy, Ph.D.
  • BITs Development Core Leader
  • 312-503-1900

  • Joyce Ho, Ph.D.
  • Research Implementation Core Leader
  • 312-503-5387

  • Lisette Luistro
  • Program Assistant, Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
  • 312-503-0979

  • Tasneem Uting
  • Research Administrator, Department of Preventive Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
  • 312-908-5679

« People

CBITs Faculty Members

  • David W. Baker, M.D., M.P.H.
  • Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine

  • Michelle Nicole Burns, Ph.D.
  • Research Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine

  • David Cella, Ph.D.
  • Chair, Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine

  • Lynette Craft, Ph.D.
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University

  • Alok Choudhary Ph.D.
  • Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department & Kellogg School of Management
    Director, Center for Ultra-Scale Computing and Information Security (CUCIS)

    • « People
  • John Csernansky, M.D.
  • Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine
    Chair, Stone Institute of Psychiatry, Northwestern Memorial Hospital

  • Jenna Duffecy, Ph.D.
  • BITs Development Core Leader
    Research Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine

  • Craig Garfield, M.D., M.A.P.P.
  • Assistant Professor in Pediatrics and Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine

  • Robert Garofalo, M.D., M.P.H.
  • Director of Adolescent HIV Services, Children's Memorial Hospital

  • Darren Gergle, Ph.D.
  • Assistant Professor, Departments of Communication Studies and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University

  • Matthew Glucksberg, Ph.D.
  • Professor of Biomedical Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, Northwestern University

  • Evan Goulding, Ph.D., M.D.
  • Instructor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine

  • Joyce Ho, Ph.D.
  • Research Implementation Core Leader
    Research Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine

  • Neil Jordan, Ph.D.
  • Director, Mental Health Services and Policy Program
    Director, Health Economics Center, Institute for Healthcare Studies, Feinberg School of Medicine

  • Lisa Kuhns, Ph.D., M.P.H.
  • Research Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Feinberg School of Medicine

External Collaborators

  • Dror Ben-Zeev, Ph.D.
  • Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School and Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center
  • Director, Thresholds-Dartmouth Research Center

  • C. Hendricks Brown, Ph.D.
  • Professor and Director, Prevention Science and Methodology Group, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami

  • Timothy Heckman, Ph.D.
  • Professor, Geriatric Medicine/ Gerontology, University of Maryland, School of Medicine

  • Seth Himelhoch, M.D., M.P.H.
  • Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Ohio University
« People

Research Staff


  • Emily Giangrande
    Research Assistant

  • Xuan Shelly Cai
    Statistical Analyst

  • Ewa Nawacki
    Research Assistant

  • Gabriel Saravia
    Programmer

  • Molly Seltzer
    Research Assistant

« People

David C. Mohr, Ph.D.

CBITs Director
Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine

d-mohr@northwestern.edu | Tel: 312-503-1403


Dr. Mohr's work lies at the intersection of behavioral science, technology, and clinical intervention research. This research has focused on developing and evaluating eHealth and mHealth interventions aimed at treating and preventing depression, improving symptom management among patients with chronic illnesses, and increasing adherence to medications. He is particularly interested in understanding how people interact with behavioral intervention technologies, and how the design of the technologies can optimize behavior change and improve clinical outcomes. He is also interested in factors that promote adherence to these intervention technologies. For more of Dr. Mohr's research, go to the Mohr Lab website.


« CBITs Administration
« People

Joyce Ho, Ph.D.

Research Implementation Core Leader
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine

j-ho@northwestern.edu | Tel: 312-503-5387


Dr. Ho obtained her Ph.D. in Child Clinical Psychology from the University of Denver. Before joining Northwestern, Dr. Ho conducted research on immigrant and ethnic minority children and families, as well as on adolescent health such as cigarette smoking and risky sexual behaviors. Dr. Ho's primary interests involve improving the accessibility to mental health services and prevention programs in ethnic minority populations. She is especially interested in exploring new ways to achieve these goals, including how communications technology may be used to promote health and prevent mental illness.


« CBITs Administration
« People

Jenna Duffecy, Ph.D.

BITs Development Core Leader
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine

j-duffecy@northwestern.edu | Tel: 312-503-1900



« CBITs Administration
« People

David W. Baker, M.D., M.P.H.

Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine


Dr. Baker's research has focused on access to health care, racial and ethnic disparities in care, health communication, and quality of care for chronic diseases. In the area of access to care and health care delivery for vulnerable populations, his interests include health literacy, language barriers, the effect of lack of insurance on health care use and health outcomes, and racial and ethnic differences in health care use and outcomes.


« People

Michelle Nicole Burns, Ph.D.

Research Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine


Dr. Burns left her previous career as a software engineer to earn her Doctorate (2009) and Master of Science (2007) in Clinical Psychology from the University of Georgia. She then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Technology-Assisted Mental Health Intervention in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, where she is currently a Research Assistant Professor.

Dr. Burns' research has focused on the following areas: 1) computerized, Internet, and mobile phone treatments for anxiety and depression; 2) the relationship of depression and anxiety to minority stress and related cognitions in gay men; and 3) co-occurring psychiatric disorders and outcomes of underserved populations in randomized controlled psychotherapy trials. She is currently developing research that weaves each of these interests and her engineering experience together by creating a mobile phone application to deliver culturally tailored, cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety and depressive disorders to young sexual minority men. Dr. Burns is excited about the potential of technology to overcome barriers to psychotherapy and reach hidden, underserved communities.


« People

Chih-Hung Chang, Ph.D.

Associate Professor in Medicine-General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics and
Buehler Center on Aging, Health & Society, Feinberg School of Medicine


Dr. Chang's interests include aging, pain, palliative and end-of-life care research, Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO), health communications, health literacy, health services research, medical informatics, clinical infometrics, psychometrics, Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL), caregiver health, clinical decision making, Item Response Theory (IRT), Rasch Measurement Models, Item Banking and Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT).


« People

David Cella, Ph.D.

Professor and Chair, Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University


Dr. Cella has several grants and contracts to study questions regarding quality of life measurement in clinical trials, cross-cultural equivalence of quality of life measurement, efficacy of psychosocial interventions in oncology, and medical outcomes research. He has developed and is continually refining the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) Measurement System for outcome evaluation in patients with chronic medical conditions. He is principal investigator of the statistical coordinating center for the NIH Roadmap Initiative to build a Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS). He is also principal investigator of a contract to develop item banks for the clinical trials supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.


« People

Lynette Craft, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University


Dr. Craft is a Kinesiologist whose research focuses on the mental and physical impact of exercise in individuals with clinical depression. Specifically, she studies the use of exercise as an adjunct to traditional treatments for depression and the mechanisms underlying the exercise-depression relationship. Recently, Dr. Craft has also begun to examine the role of physical activity in chronic disease prevention and is investigating the ways in which regular physical activity contributes to chronic disease risk reduction among those with affective disorders.


« People

Alok Choudhary, Ph.D.

Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department & Kellogg School of Management
Director, Center for Ultra-Scale Computing and Information Security (CUCIS) Northwestern University



« People

John Csernansky, M.D.

Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Chair, Stone Institute of Psychiatry, Northwestern Memorial Hospital


Dr. Csernansky is interested in identifying new biomarkers for psychosis and dementia, using biomarkers to develop new treatment approaches for the disorders, and developing more informative animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders.


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Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, M.D., Sc.M.

Associate Professor in Preventive Medicine and Medicine-Cardiology
Chair, Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University


Dr. Lloyd-Jones' research interests lie in cardiovascular disease epidemiology, risk estimation, and prevention. A main focus of his research has been investigation of the lifetime risks for various cardiovascular diseases, and factors which modify those risks. Other areas of interest include CVD risk estimation using novel biomarkers, imaging of subclinical atherosclerosis, and the epidemiology of hypertension. His clinical and teaching interests lie in general cardiology, with a focus on prevention.


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Darren Gergle, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Departments of Communication Studies and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University


Dr. Gergle's research is in the fields of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) with an interest in developing a theoretical understanding of the role that visual information plays in supporting communication and small group interactions. A key component of his work is the application of social and cognitive psychology theory to the design, deployment and evaluation of computing technologies.


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Craig Garfield, M.D., M.A.P.P.

Assistant Professor in Pediatrics and Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University


Craig Garfield, MD, MAPP is a pediatrician and a researcher with a dual appointment in the Departments of Pediatrics and Medical Social Science.As a preventionist, his research focuses on improving the health of children and families by understanding the role parents play in the health and wellbeing of children, in particular the role of fathers. Lately, he had also been focusing on the influence children play on the health and wellbeing of parents. He recently was awarded a five-year K23 grant from NICHD for his project "Young Men's Health and the Transition to Fatherhood." He is working in collaboration with Motorola Mobility to design "NICU-2-Home," an innovative technology program to support parents of Very Low Birth Weight premature infants as they transition to home from the NICU. Dr. Garfield is a faculty member in the Institute for Policy Research and the Center on Social Disparities and Health: Cells-to-Society (C2S).
While he has provided primary pediatric care to low income families in the Child and Adolescent Care Center in Evanston since 2000, his current clinical work is in the Division of Hospital-Based Medicine in Prentice Women's Hospital's NICU. Dr. Garfield has also spent four years as a College Mentor for one quarter of the Feinberg School of Medicine Class of 2011.


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Robert Garofalo, M.D., M.P.H.

Director of Adolescent HIV Services, Children's Memorial Hospital
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University


Dr. Robert Garofalo, MD, MPH, is an associate professor of pediatrics and preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. He is also an attending physician at Children's Memorial Hospital, where he directs the Adolescent/Young Adult HIV Program and the Center for Gender, Sexuality and HIV Prevention, a Children's Memorial Research Center of Excellence. The Center examines a broad range of multidisciplinary academic subjects including sexual health, gender, sexuality, HIV prevention and health disparities affecting adolescent and young adult populations at risk of acquiring HIV. Dr. Garofalo is a national authority on LGBT health issues, adolescent sexuality, and HIV clinical care and prevention. He is a past president of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association. In 2010, Dr. Garofalo served as a committee member for the National Academy of Sciences/Institute of Medicine Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health Issues and Research Gaps and Opportunities. Dr. Garofalo has written a number of peer-reviewed articles and other publications on HIV and the health risks facing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth. He is currently the principal investigator for a number of federally funded research projects for HIV-positive adolescents, LGBT youth, and other at-risk youth populations.


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Matthew Glucksberg, Ph.D.

Professor of Biomedical Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, Northwestern University


Dr. Glucksberg's includes pulmonary mechanics and lung liquid transport; blood pressure and flow in the retinal circulation; and noninvasive sensing of blood flow and analytes.


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Evan Goulding, Ph.D., M.D.

Instructor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University



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Neil Jordan, Ph.D.

Director, Mental Health Services and Policy Program
Director, Health Economics Center, Institute for Healthcare Studies, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine


Dr. Jordan's research interests include the effect of chronic illness complexity on processes & outcomes of mental health care, the effect of care context (organizational and community/geographic) on processes and outcomes of mental health, child welfare, and complex chronic illness treatment, and incentivizing provider performance and provision of high value interventions.


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Lisa Kuhns, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Research Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Feinberg School of Medicine


Lisa M. Kuhns, Ph.D., M.P.H. is a research assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University's Feinberg school of Medicine and associate director of the Center for Gender, Sexuality, and HIV Prevention at Children's Memorial Hospital. Dr. Kuhns has focused her research career on the impact of sexual and gender minority status on behavioral health outcomes among LGBT youth and adults. She is a co-investigator on studies examining risk and protective factors associated with HIV prevention and HIV-related treatment adherence, including a current intervention study testing the use of technology to increase adherence to medications among HIV-positive youth.


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Mary J. Kwasny, Sc.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine


Dr. Kwasny is an experienced consultant and collaborator and has published in areas including Nutrition, Neurology, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Rheumatology, and Ergonomics/Occupational Health. These studies include both cohort studies (cross sectional and longitudinal) and clinical trials. She has taught both undergraduate and graduate level Introductory and Advanced Biostatistics, Study design, and Sampling. Her main research interests include missing and misclassified data, especially with respect to anthropomorphic measures and changes in anthropomorphic data over time.


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Brian Mustanski, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Medical Social Sciences, Feinberg School of Medicine


Dr. Mustanski is a psychologist whose work focuses on LGBT Health and HIV prevention, particularly in the applications of new technology for research and intervention. He has been the PI of NIH and Foundation grants focused on the use of the Internet for HIV prevention and sexual health promotion with youth. He is Director of the IMPACT LGBT Health and Development Program (www.impactprogram.org)


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Paul J. Reber, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestsern University


Dr. Reber's research interests include how the brain expresses memory and where memory occurs in the brain, conconscious perceptual learning of artificial categories, conscious and nonconscious memory.


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Bonnie Spring, Ph.D., A.B.P.P.

Professor, Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine


Dr. Spring's research combines health promotion, risk behaviors (cigarette smoking; poor quality diet, inactivity, obesity, stress, depression), behavioral interventions, and e-technology. The overarching goal of the research is to develop health promotion interventions that retain the efficacy of individual intensive behavioral treatments while attaining the reach, reduced cost, and impact of population-based interventions.

A current research emphasis concerns identifying optimal ways to modify several unhealthy behaviors at a time (for example, high saturated fat, low fruits and vegetables, low physical activity, high "screen time"). Another emphasis involves using electronic technology to extend the reach of behavioral interventions. Other research interests concern health disparities, food "addiction," and comorbid depression.


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Justin B. Starren, M.D., Ph.D.

Chief, Division of Preventive Medicine-Health and Biomedical Informatics
Associate Professor in Preventive Medicine-Health and Biomedical Informatics


Dr. Starren's current research continues to focus on new ways to make health care computing more useful. This includes developing intuitive, novel Human Computer Interfaces (HCI) for health care, including working the design of graphical icons for clinical applications, addressing data overload for clinicians and issues in affective computing. A related line of research is developing methods for the integration of clinic research computing into clinical care.


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Dror Ben-Zeev, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School and Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center
Director, Thresholds-Dartmouth Research Center


Dr. Ben-Zeev's professional interests include schizophrenia, technologies and mental health, psychosocial interventions for psychosis, and stigma of mental illness.


« External Collaborators
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C. Hendricks Brown, Ph.D.

Professor and Director, Prevention Science and Methodology Group, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami



« External Collaborators
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Seth Himelhoch, M.D., M.P.H.

Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine


Dr. Himelhoch's clinical and research experiences have focused on access to care and treatment of co-occurring psychiatric and drug use disorders among individuals with HIV. He is currently the Director of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services at the University of Maryland School of Medicines HIV clinic, The Evelyn Jordan Clinic. He is actively involved in the clinical and research supervision of both medical students and psychiatry trainees.


« External Collaborators
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Julie Kreyenbuhl, Pharm.D., Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine


Dr. Kreyenbuhl's primary research focus is the pharmacoepidemiology of serious mental illness, primarily schizophrenia. Dr. Kreyenbuhl has contributed extensively to the development of evidence-based treatment guidelines for schizophrenia, serving as a co-investigator on the first update and principal investigator of grants funded by the NIMH and the VA to support the second update of the Schizophrenia Patient Outcomes Research Team (PORT) treatment recommendations. She also served as a consultant to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) during their effort to update the Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Patients with Schizophrenia in 2004. She is also interested in methods to improve screening for the metabolic side effects of antipsychotic medications. She has received grant funding from VA HSR&D to determine if providing computerized, personalized health information directly to veterans with serious mental illnesses on whether their care adheres to screening guidelines for side effects increases rates of screening and activates patients to discuss screening with their providers. She is currently pursuing research funding on other computer-technology based interventions for individuals with serious mental illnesses, including the development and testing of a Smartphone application for enhancing adherence to antipsychotic medications.


« External Collaborators
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Rebecca Silton, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Clinical Psychology, Loyola University Chicago


Dr. Silton's research focuses on the abnormal and normal development of executive function across the life span. Her research involves a collaborative, interdisciplinary perspective that prioritizes translational goals and that links perspectives from neuroscience, neuropsychology, and clinical psychology. In particular, she is interested in investigating individual differences that influence the development of the frontocingulate network and related executive functions (i.e., attentional/cognitive control, shifting, updating, inhibition, problem-solving). Her laboratory, the Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience laboratory (www.canlab.org), primarily uses electroencephalography (EEG) methods to study the time course of regional brain activity during executive functioning. The lab conducts functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research in collaboration with other local Universities.


« External Collaborators
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Benjamin Van Voorhees, M.D., M.P.H.

Chief, Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago


Dr. Van Voorhees's long-term research objective is to reduce the morbidity of depressive disorders during adolescence through preventive Internet-based interventions in primary care and community settings, and to develop this model more broadly for other mental disorders. Since successfully completing a pilot study and long term follow up of the CATCH-IT (Competent Adulthood Transition with Cognitive, Humanistic, and Interpersonal Training) primary care/internet-based adolescent depression prevention intervention, Dr. Van Voorhees went on to develop a primary care mental health portal linked to peer-to-peer support and successfully conducted a randomized clinical trial comparing methods for referring adults with depressed mood to this portal and the support program. His team is now progressing to the next generation of community-based efficacy studies, including a three year study to develop and evaluate the "Chicago Urban Resiliency Building" intervention (depression risk-reduction in Hispanic and African American youth urban environment using primary care/Internet approaches) and a five-year randomized controlled trial of the CATCH-IT intervention that incorporates community based practices in Chicago and Boston.


« External Collaborators
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Current Opportunities


Funding

Pilot Grant

CBITs offers an annual pilot grant of $20,000 for the development of Behavioral Intervention Technologies to Northwestern University faculty investigators. This grant program is aimed to catalyze BITs research within the Northwestern community. The last application deadline was January 10th, 2012. Please check back this Fall for the 2013 RFA and deadlines.

Positions

Assistant/Associate Professor in Technology-Assisted Behavioral Intervention
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Northwestern University

» Read position details

Assistant/Associate Professor in Technology-Assisted Behavioral Intervention
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is seeking an outstanding scientist-clinician for a full-time appointment at the Assistant or Associate Professor level to join Northwestern University Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies (CBITs). Newly established in 2011 under the direction of Dr. David Mohr, CBITs will provide a unique scientific home for applied researchers who integrate behavioral science, information and communications technologies, and clinical intervention research. The successful candidate will have research interests in the development, evaluation, or dissemination of eHealth or mHealth interventions. Expertise in the application of a number of intervention technologies is sought, including but not limited to mobile applications, sensor technologies, social networking, virtual reality or serious gaming. Candidates will have an established record of high productivity, independent research and funding consistent with level of career advancement. Candidates must also be license-eligible to allow for some clinical duties, the extent to which can be negotiated. The position may be tenure-track or non-tenure track, depending on the percent mix of clinical/research duties and other candidate interests. Salary is commensurate with experience. Start date is flexible. Northwestern University is an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Employer. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. Position is open until filled.

Please address applications to: David C. Mohr, PhD, c/o Marie Lee, Department of Preventive Medicine, 680 N. Lakeshore Drive, Suite 1400, Chicago IL 60611 or electronically to: m-leeh@northwestern.edu. Please refer to Job ID: 17686.


Web Applications/Software Developer Associate
Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies

» Read position details

Web Applications/Software Developer Associate
Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies

The Web Applications/Software Developer Associate will be responsible for supporting the existing infrastructure as well as develop new technologies in the area of internet and mobile phone mental health interventions within an academic medical center. The ideal candidate must display excellent written and oral skills with demonstrated interpersonal and organization abilities. A candidate for this position must be able to work in a varied, fast paced environment. Flexibility and tolerance is a necessity.

To apply, visit Northwestern University's Department of Human Resources and refer to Job ID: 17562

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Purple: the Extensible Framework at CBITs (November 18, 2011)


The Purple Development Environment is a multi-purpose toolkit designed iteratively by CBITs to deploy behavioral intervention technologies with increased speed and quality and allow researchers to collect data and manage intervention participation.    In the following videos you will learn about how Purple has been applied in mobile phone and web based interventions developed by CBITs, and how you can use Purple to deploy lesson content and interactive tools, track site activity, generate unified data models, harness social networking, and allow for online recruitment, consenting, enrollment and assessment of study participants.

Example: Mood Manager



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Example: Mobilyze!



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Example: Project Onward



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Developing a Behavioral Intervention Technology



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Component: Content Editor



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Component: Discussion Browser



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Component: Module Editor



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Component: User Feedback



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Component: Patient Management


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Component: Thought Record


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Create Your Own BIT


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