Using technology (web, mobile devices) to deliver evidence-based, behavior change interventions targeting substance use disorders (SUDs) and related issues (including HIV risk behavior and psychiatric comorbidities) can markedly improve access to care, quality of care, and treatment outcomes, while reducing costs, for a wide array of audiences in diverse settings. Our interdisciplinary group received a P30 Center of Excellence grant from NIDA 3.5 years ago to launch a new research center (the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health [CTBH]). CTBH has led the field by enhancing the quality, pace of achievement, and impact of scientific research focused on the development, empirical testing, and sustainable implementation of technology- delivered interventions targeting SUDs and related issues. In this renewal application, we propose to build upon this work and expand a programmatic line of research in several new directions, based on the needs and priorities of CTBH investigators and a broader community of scientists, clinicians, program administrators, consumers, and educators, as well as the evolving field of behavioral health technology. To this end, the Overall Aim of the P30 Core Center is: To integrate expertise across multiple disciplines and provide an infrastructure to enhance the quality, pace of achievement, and impact of innovative scientific research that combines science-based behavior change interventions with state-of-the-science technologies to create, evaluate, and disseminate technology-based interventions targeting SUDs and related issues. CTBH will achieve this Aim via 5 Cores (which includes 1 new Core): (1) The Treatment Development and Evaluation Core will serve as a resource to CTBH's interdisciplinary team to enhance the quality, efficiency, and impact of their research projects and promote a scientific understanding of how, and for whom, technology-based interventions are effective (by integrating methods and results across CTBH projects and examining unexplored empirical questions), (2) The Dissemination and Implementation Core will disseminate research project methods and findings to a broad audience of stakeholders and facilitate adoption and sustained use of technology interventions in diverse settings (via online toolkits of interventions, roadmaps for their adoption, and metrics to evaluate their impact in community systems), (3) The new Emerging Technologies and Data Analytics Core will enhance educational and research opportunities focused on the application of emerging technologies and data analytics to the development and evaluation of technology interventions and to support shared resources to enhance the pace of development, and resulting potency of such interventions, (4) The Pilot Core will support the development of a pipeline of new areas of research that could then progress to more rigorous empirical testing via external funding mechanisms after the pilot phase, and (5) The Administrative Core will provide programmatic leadership that ensures successful coordination of activities across Cores and an infrastructure to enhance synergy among our expert team.
Empirically supported, technology-based interventions (e.g., web, mobile) targeting substance use disorders (SUDs) and related issues (such as HIV and psychiatric comorbidities) enable widespread reach of evidence- based care and offer the potential to have a marked public health impact. The Center for Technology and Behavioral Health serves as a national resource for researchers, technologists, consumers, service providers, service payers, and policy makers interested in the development, evaluation, sustainable implementation of technology-based behavioral interventions for SUDs and related issues.
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