Spotlight on The Mental Health Technology and Innovation Hub

The Mental Health Technology and Innovation Hub (the “Tech Hub”) is a Special Initiative of the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, comprised of a collaborative group of clinicians, researchers, educators, trainees, faculty, and staff with an interest in the intersection of mental health, innovation, and technology. The Tech Hub's mission is to empower clinicians, researchers, educators, and industry leaders who are driving mental health advancements through technological innovation, acting as a catalyst for the community by providing expertise, connections, and resources. Led by co-directors Eric Kuhn, PhD, David Hong, MD, and Shannon Wiltsey Stirman, PhD, and supported by Pippa Kennard, Program Manager, their goal is to encourage access to effective solutions that improve the well-being of individuals and communities around the world.

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Stanford is ideally situated to serve as a key hub for those passionate about mental health technology. Stanford Medicine provides a supportive ecosystem that is especially fertile for visionary researchers wishing to take novel solutions from ideation to interventions that make a real-world impact. Within Stanford Medicine, the Tech Hub offers a robust community of like-minded individuals who are dedicated to addressing challenging and chronic problems in mental health care, including a lack of access to effective care especially for the most vulnerable and underserved populations.
 

Examples of exciting mental health technology applications at Stanford:

• Web and app-based interventions for mental health self-care as well as provider-delivered care
• Use of technology to enhance educational experience for trainees
• Scalable applications that leverage natural language processing (NLP),  machine learning (ML), and Large Language Models (LLMs) to create personalized health inventories, interventions, and training technologies
• Wearable hardware that collects and computes big data to identify and interpret behavioral biomarkers, and provide insights and actionable feedback
• Social media platforms, conversational agents, and socially assistive robots (SARs) that aim to foster belonging and connection
• Immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (VR and AR) that can address mental health conditions and enhance well-being
   

Tech Hub Cores

The Tech Hub’s Cores provide support for faculty in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and beyond who are currently working in, or are starting out in, the mental health technology and innovation space. They are also nodes of interdisciplinary connection, allowing scholars and scientists in other departments, institutions, and in the mental health technology industry to collaborate and share ideas. If you’re interested in participating in or leading one of these cores, please contact the Tech Hub’s Program Manager, Pippa Kennard (pippa@stanford.edu).

Additionally, faculty submitting grants related to mental health technology can include the Tech Hub as a resource in their grant submissions. According to Catherine Benedict, Clinical Associate Professor, Stanford School of Medicine, “The grant reviewers called out the Tech Hub as a unique Stanford resource that I had access to, which I believe positively impacted my score and the success of the grant.”
 

Join Us

On the second Wednesday of each month from 12-1pm Pacific, the Tech Hub hosts virtual webinars, called “Hubinars.” At these events, speakers from across the field of mental health tech present on cutting-edge research and clinical applications of these technologies. Hubinars are lively and interactive events that leave lots of room for discussion. As a complement to the Department’s Grand Rounds series, the Tech Hub hosts intimate Q&A sessions with the speakers where they expand upon themes covered in their Grand Rounds talk in a less formal environment. The Tech Hub will host its first Hubinar of the year  - its Annual Kick-Off - on Wednesday September 11th, 12-1pm Pacific. Anyone interested in the intersection of mental health, technology, and innovation is welcome to join Tech Hub events!

Learn More

Check out the website

Follow the Tech Hub on LinkedIn

Become a Tech Hub Collaborator

If you’d like support from the Tech Hub, please submit this brief form with information about your request and the team will get back to you!

Alternatively, you can email techhub-psychiatry@stanford.edu or reach out to the Tech Hub’s Program Manager, Pippa Kennard (pippa@stanford.edu).