Funded R03s

R03 – Using Human Centered Design for Technology-Enabled Behavioral Treatment of Depression in Urban and Rural Cancer Centers 

Depression is highly prevalent but undertreated in patients with cancer, particularly in rural populations. The overall objective of this research is to use technology to enhance depression care for patients in cancer centers by improving access to behavioral activation (BA), an evidence-based treatment. This research supports the UW ALACRITY Center mission by applying expertise in mental health and in human-centered design to address usability and sustained quality of delivery of BA in a Collaborative Care (CoCM) setting.

Aim 1: Engage a diverse group of stakeholders (patients, providers, administrators) from rural and urban cancer centers in a human-centered design process to discovercontextual constraints and gather requirements for the design and development of a digital platform to support the delivery of CoCM for depression.

Aim 2: Design an early prototype for the digital platform that addresses the challenges in implementation and technology support that were uncovered in the discovery phase (Aim 1). Through an iterative process, we will develop a prototype of the proposed digital system and elicit feedback on its design from providers and patients to address the research question: do target users find the design of the system to be an appropriate, acceptable and usable method to support CoCM for depression in the cancer setting?

This project accelerates translational behavioral health research by generating knowledge to inform technology-enabled service delivery models and their integration into general medical settings.