We are pleased to invite Nick Allen, PhD from University of Oregon as our second guest lecturer for the SPIRIT Speaker Series.

He will be presenting on ”Real time assessment of mood disorders and suicide risk in youth: Building towards scalable just-in-time intervention

Nick Allen has more than thirty years of experience in clinical psychology practice, research, and education. His research aims to understand the interactions between multiple risk factors for adolescent onset mental health disorders, and to use these insights to develop innovative approaches to prevention and early intervention. His group holds multiple National Institutes of Health-funded grants for work focusing on the use of mobile and wearable technology to monitor risk for poor mental health outcomes including suicide, depression, and bipolar disorder. His team has developed software tools that combine active and passive sensing methods to provide intensive longitudinal assessment of behavior with minimal participant burden. The ultimate aim of these technologies is to develop a new generation of “just-in-time” behavioral interventions for early intervention and prevention of mental health problems. He is currently leading a project with Google to determine the effect that smartphone usage has on mental health. Nick is also the co-founder and CEO of Ksana Health Inc, a company whose mission is to use research evidence and modern technology to revolutionize the delivery of mental health care through remote behavioral monitoring and adaptive, continuous behavior change support.