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Evaluation ViewAttendees 2

Technology/Digital Health
Session Type:: Symposia

Symposium 25 - Leveraging Novel Scientific Approaches and Digital Technologies to Bridge the Divide in Under Addressed Psychological Conditions

Friday, November 21, 2025
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM CST
Location: Bolden 2, Level 2
CE: 1.5

Keywords: Technology / Mobile Health, Vulnerable Populations, Anger / Irritability
Level of Familiarity: Basic to Moderate
Recommended Readings: Philippe, T. J., Sikder, N., Jackson, A., Koblanski, M. E., Liow, E., Pilarinos, A., & Vasarhelyi, K. (2022). Digital health interventions for delivery of mental health care: systematic and comprehensive meta-review. JMIR mental health, 9(5), e35159.,   Chung, J., & Teo, J. (2022). Mental health prediction using machine learning: taxonomy, applications, and challenges. Applied Computational Intelligence and Soft Computing, 2022(1), 9970363.,   van Genugten, C. R., Thong, M. S., Van Ballegooijen, W., Kleiboer, A. M., Spruijt-Metz, D., Smit, A. C., ... & Riper, H. (2025). Beyond the current state of just-in-time adaptive interventions in mental health: a qualitative systematic review. Frontiers in Digital Health, 7, 1460167.,   Larkin, M., Boden, Z. V., & Newton, E. (2015). On the brink of genuinely collaborative care: experience-based co-design in mental health. Qualitative health research, 25(11), 1463-1476.,  

Novel digital mental health solutions have tremendous potential to enhance the reach and impact of cognitive behavioral therapies. This symposium describes the findings from four highly novel studies that have leveraged wearable, smartphone, and other biosensor technology with the ultimate goal of improving the delivery and access to evidence-based interventions, including to underserved populations in which mental health treatment seeking is sometimes associated with stigma. Two presentations will focus on studies developing machine learning algorithms to detect behaviours in real-world settings in order to inform the development of early intervention and just-in-time interventions. The remaining two presentations focus on results from novel digital mental health interventions, that deliver just-in-time support to reduce the negative impacts of anger and aggression in diverse populations. Quantitative, qualitative, and machine learning analysis methods are utilised across the studies to ensure a rigorous scientific approach. Underserved populations include young infants, diverse couples experiencing intimate partner violence and alcohol use disorder, and women experiencing challenges with anger and aggression. Across all studies, feasibility, acceptability and co-design principles are leveraged to ensure that novel digital technologies are being informed by the needs of the users.

The first presentation reports on the accuracy and acceptability of transdermal sensors to detect real-time drinking, including high-risk drinking episodes. The second presentation reports on the potential for technology to reliably audio-record infant cries and predict infant psychopathology a year later. The third describes a new just-in-time-adaptive intervention designed alongside stakeholders and presents preliminary findings from a novel adaptive trial to ensure the CBT components target the underlying mechanisms. The fourth describes results from a study examining heart rate variability as a potential correlate of alcohol-related intimate partner aggression in naturalistic settings, and the preliminary feasibility and acceptability of an app-based heart rate variability biofeedback intervention.

Presenters, including international researchers, bring their experiences conducting research in particularly vulnerable and commonly underrepresented populations in mental health research, including infants, women who have experienced complex trauma, people experiencing addiction, and couples experiencing partner violence. The discussant will draw on her experience in developing novel interventions to tackle alcohol use disorder, violence, and aggression.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, the learner will be able to:
  1. Describe some emerging new technologies that can predict and intervene in a range of mental health issues affecting underserved populations.
  2. Describe how innovative methods are being used in digital mental health, such as machine learning and adaptive trial methods.
  3. Examine the principles of co-design, feasibility, and acceptability considerations in developing digital mental health interventions.
  4. Understand the potential for ecological momentary assessment as a treatment and assessment tool in real-world environments.

Presentations:

  • 3:06 PM - 3:27 PM CST
    (SYM 25) Validity and User Acceptability of Alcohol Use Detection via Wrist-worn Transdermal Biosensor

    Speaker: Catharine E. Fairbairn, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

    Co-author: Silvia Murgia, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

    Co-author: Jiaxu Han, M.A. (she/her/hers) – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

    Co-author: Eddie Caumiant, M.S. (he/him/his) – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

    Co-author: Nigel Bosch, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  • 3:27 PM - 3:48 PM CST
    (SYM 25) Concurrent, Predictive, and Incremental Validity of Natural, Daylong Cry Audio Recordings and a Machine Learning Algorithm to Identify Risk for Irritability and Psychopathology in Young Children

    Speaker: Lauren M. Henry, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – National Institute of Mental Health

    Co-author: Kyunghun Lee, Ph.D. – National Institute of Mental Health

    Co-author: Elizabeth Tandilashvili, BS – National Institute of Mental Health

    Co-author: Ellie Hansen, BA – National Institute of Mental Health

    Co-author: Francisco Pereira, PhD – National Institute of Mental Health

    Co-author: Daniel S. Pine, M.D. – National Institute of Mental Health

    Co-author: Elizabeth Norton, D. Phil. – Northwestern University

    Co-author: Lauren Wakschlag, PhD – Northwestern University

    Co-author: Melissa Brotman, PhD – Emotion and Development Branch, NIMH

  • 3:48 PM - 4:09 PM CST
    (SYM 25) Preliminary Results from an Ongoing Micro-randomized Trial Testing a Just-in-time-adaptive Intervention for Problem Anger After Trauma

    Speaker: Olivia Metcalf, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – The University of Melbourne

    Co-author: David Forbes, PhD (he/him/his) – University of Melbourne

    Co-author: Tianchen Qian, PhD (he/him/his) – University of California Irvine

  • 4:09 PM - 4:30 PM CST
    (SYM 25) Using Wearable Technology to Develop Biomarker-driven Intervention for Alcohol-related Intimate Partner Violence

    Speaker: Julianne C. Flanagan, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – Medical University of South Carolina

    Co-author: Paul Nietert, PhD – Medical University of South Carolina, Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center

    Co-author: Brandi C. Fink, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

    Co-author: Rachel Tomko, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) – Medical University of South Carolina

    Co-author: James Cavanagh, Ph.D. (he/him/his) – University of New Mexico

    Co-author: Morgan Thomas, B.A. (she/her/hers) – Medical University of South Carolina