PHI Speaker Series Presentation: RAGE-Control: Regulate and Gain Emotional Control

14 Mar 2013 | No Comments | posted by Intille | in Campus event, PHI Seminar Series

Please join us for a talk in the Personal Health Informatics Speaker Series.

Thursday 3/14, 4-5PM, Room 104 West Village G (WVG)
Please note the room change from last semester.

Open to the public.

RAGE-Control: Regulate and Gain Emotional Control
Jason Kahn, Ph.D.
Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Abstract: Many young children have clinical levels of anger and aggression, which has negative consequences with families, peers, and academics. Historically, these children have had to rely on psychotherapy or psychopharmacological medications to treat these symptoms. Both of these approaches can be effective, but have considerable limitations. Adapting both recent findings in neuroscience and constructivist principles, we have been developing video games to help these children by using active biofeedback, which requires both simultaneous attention and relaxation. In pilot studies in both outpatient and inpatient settings, we have found that using our video game leads to reduced symptoms of anger in children. We have taken these findings and started developing toys that use the principles.

Bio:
Jason Kahn, PhD is a researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital and an Instructor at Harvard Medical School. He received his PhD in education from Tufts University and is an expert in developing new technologies to help children learn concepts that are often considered developmentally difficult. At Boston Children’s he has pursued multiple avenues to incorporate emerging technology to improve mental health care. He is committed to creating new ways for children to explore the world around them, leading to healthy development and positive interactions with family and peers.

For a list of upcoming speakers, see http://phi.neu.edu/seminar

PHI Speaker Series Presentation: Use of Pre-recorded Video and Audio to Create an Engaging Interactive Media Program for Mental Health

26 Feb 2013 | No Comments | posted by Intille | in Campus event, PHI Seminar Series

Thursday 2/28, 4-5PM, Room 104 West Village G (WVG)
Please note the room change from last semester.

Open to the public.

Use of Pre-recorded Video and Audio to Create an Engaging Interactive Media Program for Mental Health

James Cartreine, PhD
Research and Clinical Psychologist
Program in Behavioral Informatics and eHealth
Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Instructor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Abstract: A 10-year program of research has been undertaken for NASA to develop and evaluate a suite of interactive media programs to help astronauts prevent, assess, and treat their own psychosocial problems. One of the Virtual Space Station tools that is now being transitioned for use by the public helps persons improve their mood and enjoyment of life, based on problem-solving therapy for depression. Through rich media (branching video and audio clips tailored to users’ inputs), a conversation is approximated between the user and a competent, caring therapist. The intent is to make the program feel more like interacting with a person than with a computer. Research studies have indicated that users “bond” with the on-camera therapist similar to live therapy. This talk will provide a rationale for when to use and not to use video, audio, graphics and text in a behavioral health-oriented computer program, as well as the process of storyboarding, scriptwriting, and media production that went into the production. A demonstration of the Virtual Space Station and its components will be provided.

For a list of upcoming speakers, see http://phi.neu.edu/seminar