Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Center for Behavioral Intervention Technologies
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IntelliCare

IntelliCare is a suite of multiple smartphone apps, each of which provides a microintervention targeting a single behavioral strategy for depression and/or anxiety. Rather than using a single intervention tool to target a disorder, which can be time consuming for the user, we have used a platform approach, in which a variety of apps, each targeting a singular psychological strategy. This is particularly important for mobile apps, which typically have one objective and are quick and easy to use. IntelliCare apps are designed to fit into the fabric of users’ lives. They are simple and quick to use, most requiring less than 30 seconds for each use. The user can select those apps that are most useful and ignore those that do not meet their needs. The apps are available on Google Play and Apple App Store.

The IntelliCare Hub app, if installed on the phone, orchestrates the user’s experience by making weekly recommendations for new apps to try. However, while the recommendation is to look at the app, the user is encouraged to those that are helpful and is free to ignore those that are not.

IntelliCare can be used alone or in conjunction with human coaching. Coaches are provided with an online dashboard that provides visibility into the user’s activity on IntelliCare apps, tracks symptom severity and manages text messaging communications.

IntelliCare development has been moved to a startup out of Northwestern University, Adaptive Health, which is working to disseminate and implement IntelliCare broadly. In this effort, IntelliCare is being deployed system wide in the Rush University Medical Center’s Collaborative Care Program, where it has been fully integrated into their Epic EHR.

The PI is David C. Mohr, PhD.

Project Names

Funding

  • National Institute of Mental Health grant R44 MH114725 (MacIver / Mohr)
  • National Institute of Mental Health grant R01MH110482 (Mohr)
  • National Institute of Mental Health grant R01 MH109496 (Cheung/Mohr)

Evaluation Groups

  • Adults (18+) with symptoms of depression and/or anxiety
  • Users in the general public
  • Primary Care patients with depression and/or anxiety

Publications

  • Graham AK, Greene CJ, Kwasny MJ, M.J., Kaiser, S.M., Lieponis, P., Powell, T., Mohr, D.C. Coached Mobile App Platform for the Treatment of Depression and Anxiety Among Primary Care Patients: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2020.
  • Mohr DC, Schueller SM, Tomasino KN, Palac, H., Kwasny, M.J., Weingardt, K., Karr, C.J., Kaiser, S.M., Rossom, R., Bardsley, L.R., Caccamo, L., Stiles-Shields, C., Schueller, S.M. Comparison of the Effects of Coaching and Receipt of App Recommendations on Depression, Anxiety, and Engagement in the IntelliCare Platform: Factorial Randomized Controlled Trial. J Med Internet Res. 2019;21(8):e13609.
  • Mohr DC, Tomasino KN, Lattie EG, et al. IntelliCare: An Eclectic, Skills-Based App Suite for the Treatment of Depression and Anxiety. J Med Internet Res. 2017;19(1):e10
  • Lattie EG, Schueller SM, Sargent E, et al. Uptake and Usage of IntelliCare: A Publicly Available Suite of Mental Health and Well-Being Apps. Internet Interv. 2016;4(2):152-158.
  • Kwasny MJ, Schueller SM, Lattie E, Gray EL, Mohr DC. Exploring the Use of Multiple Mental Health Apps Within a Platform: Secondary Analysis of the IntelliCare Field Trial. JMIR Ment Health. 2019;6(3):e11572.
  • Cheung K, Ling W, Karr CJ, Weingardt K, Schueller SM, Mohr DC. Evaluation of a recommender app for apps for the treatment of depression and anxiety: an analysis of longitudinal user engagement. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2018;25(8):955-962.

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