Nicholas C. Jacobson, PhD: Utilizing Passively Collected Data in Daily Life to Enhance the Assessment and Treatment of Mental Health

Dr. Nick Jacobson is a tenure-track assistant professor in the departments of Biomedical Data Science and Psychiatry within the Center for Technology and Behavioral Health in the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College. He directs the AI and Mental Health: Innovation in Technology Guided Healthcare (AIM HIGH) Laboratory. Dr. Jacobson researches the use of technology to enhance both the assessment and treatment of anxiety and depression. His work has focused on (1) enhancing precision assessment of anxiety and depression using intensive longitudinal data, (2) conducting multimethod assessment utilizing passive sensor data from smartphones and wearable devices, and (3) providing scalable, personalized technology-based treatments utilizing smartphones. He has a strong interest in creating personalized just-in-time adaptive interventions and the quantitative tools that make this work possible. To date, Dr. Jacobson’s smartphone applications which assess and treat anxiety and depression have been downloaded and installed by more than 50,000 people in over 100 countries. Dr. Jacobson is the principal investigator of an R01 Awarded from the National Institute of Mental Health studying the use of personalized deep learning models to predict rapid changes in major depressive disorder symptoms using passive sensor data from smartphones and wearable devices.