Recent advances in mobile technologies (e.g., smart phones, sensors) have created opportunities for applications that were not previously possible in data gathering (activity monitoring, physiological, and psychological states assessment) and intervention (just in time and context aware alerts and reminders). As such mobile technologies are poised to transform various facets of our lives especially social and health-related aspects. Taking a full advantage of the mobile and mobile health (mHealth) technologies will require considerable multidisciplinary research at the intersection of behavioral, social sciences and clinical research fields with computer science, networking and engineering. The mHealth Summer Institute addresses the multidisciplinary challenges by bringing together scientists from diverse fields to enhance the quality of mHealth research. Intellectual Merit: The mHealth Summer Training Institute is the premier venue for cross-fertilization of research in the mHealth area. By providing a structured environment for researchers from multiple disciplines to collaboratively work on a mobile health issues of common interest, the training institute provides a platform for idea generation and development that can directly lead to transformative innovations, it provides invaluable experience of working in multidisciplinary teams towards a common goal. It facilitates research, development and specially innovation in mobile health and career development of young scientists in a transdisciplinary environment with rapidly changing landscape. Broader Impacts: The institute has several long-term impacts on the society. First, the ideas generated during the institute, are frequently developed fully into promising grant proposals, several of which (from prior year institutes) have been funded. These ideas generated at the institute can lead to scientific advancement and impact the society by improving health. Second, the participants who are selected for the institute directly benefit by developing skills and experience of working in multidisciplinary teams and acquire the basic knowledge and skills of the mobile health domain via lectures from thought leaders in mobile health across all the relevant disciplines. Third, the teams formed at the institute frequently lead to long-term collaborative relationships, which continue and flourish in the long-term. It helps seed new connections among young scientists who would not otherwise work together. Fourth, the participants often become champions of mobile health at their respective home institutions and in their respective scientific communities, and educate/train others, including the students.
The NSF-supported 2013 mHealth training institute was held at UCLA between August 26 -30, 2013. The institute was developed to address the dearth of multidisciplinary training opportunities in mHealth and to increase the cross-fertilization of mHealth disciplines. The intent was to prepare investigators to conduct transdisciplinary mHealth research and also undertake a "capacity-building" of broadly-trained mHealth researchers. The Institute had two distinct but interrelated goals (a) Research Development and (b) Research Training and Career Development. Over 147 investigators from universities around the country applied. The size of the institute was designed to be small enough to maintain an interactive environment and to enable full support (travel, room and board) of the trainees. Of the 40 applicants accepted through a competitive review process (in addition to the 35 trainees selected, we also created 5 auditor positions for outreach purposes to local minority-serving institutions), 32 had PhDs and 8 had MDs. Selected trainees included the following disciplines: behavioral and social sciences (14), medical sciences (11), computer sciences (10), engineering/biomedical engineering (5). Trainees were diverse with respect to the areas in which they wanted to focus their mHealth expertise, ranging from behavioral interventions (e.g., obesity, infectious disease), mental health treatment, and quality improvement for health systems to biosensing devices. Online surveys were emailed to the attendees at the end of each day to evaluate the individual speakers and sessions; a summary questionnaire incorporating both qualitative and quantitative methods was administered to participants at the end of the institute to solicit anonymous feedback. Feedback from the course evaluations revealed that an overwhelming majority of trainees (83%) rated the UCLA mHealth institute as "excellent" and the others (17%) as "good" (none rated the institute as fair, poor, or terrible). The top three objectives expressed by trainees for attending the UCLA institute were: a) to further develop their mHealth skills, b) to better understand issues related to working across disciplines, and c) to network and develop transdisciplinary collaborations. Of the 30 respondents, 29 reported that their expectations concerning their top objective had been met or greatly exceeded, and 23 (77%) reported that their expectations concerning all three of their objectives had been met or greatly exceeded. All agreed/strongly agreed in their summary evaluation that the institute agenda was relevant to their needs/interests (100%), that the teaching strategies expanded their thinking about the topic (100%), and that they were confident that the institute "will be helpful in [their] career" (100%). The comments on the curriculum, faculty, conference organization, location, travel arrangements and accommodations were also uniformly positive. The qualitative remarks from the attendees were particularly positive. Asked to describe their favorite part of the institute, trainees stressed: a) exposure to an interdisciplinary curriculum covering a core set of mHealth competencies; b) experiences working in a transdisciplinary team; c) mentoring by the core faculty; d) lightning presentations that introduced them to mHealth work by their peers; and e) dinner mixers and networking opportunities. In addition to directly benefitting the attendees who got to acquire the necessary transdisciplinary skills for research in mHealth, the institute also benefited the mHealth community at large. The attendees continue to work in teams and expand their network of collaborators by bringing in additional collaborators to the team from their existing network, expanding the collaborative relationships that may not have occurred otherwise. The attendees are also able to involve new researchers at their home institutions in mobile health. The attendees are also able to share their newly acquired knowledge and skills with students and postdocs that they mentor at their home institutions. The attendees of all prior institutes are connected together via a mHealth mailing list that is used to share new findings and developments related to mHealth. Finally, the experiences and feedback from the 2013 mHealth Institute formed the basis for a recently funded NIH grant that allows the Mhealth institute to be hosted annually for the next five years.
