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Our research team's work uses digital therapeutics (DTx) for substance use and co-occurring violence, including creating and deploying innovative healthcare technologies to treat every part of the pathology of violence, intense emotions, and unhealthy relationships: from platforms and games for prevention and skill training to forensic assessment and DTx treatment platforms, and virtual clinics for court-involved and marginalized groups.
VR | DTx | Serious Games| Simulation | Virtual Clinics | Personalized Healthcare Technology
Using science and emerging technologies to create digital treatments and preventative pathways for conflict, emotion dysregulation, and addiction
Our research lab combines evidence-based treatment from traditional preventative and psychological care with emerging technologies to create innovative, digital treatment (DTx) assessments and interventions that teach healthy replacement behaviors and skills for conflict in relationships, aggression, and substance use. The main goal of our research lab is to use advancements in evidenced based care and technology to help reduce addiction, conflict, aggression and other unhealthy behaviors in people’s lives and close relationships. Addiction and violence tend to be multi-generational and the negative consequences to families and functioning are devastating.
We create these DTx tools through expert interdisciplinary collaboration across RIT and Rochester, including state-of-the-art guidance from on-campus experts in game design, human-computer interaction, and engineering. We partner with local game development and design studios in the Rochester area to scale and develop innovative DTx platforms and clinical health sites across Rochester, NY, and surrounding states to disseminate and test these DTx tools.
We test the effectiveness of these DTx platforms and games through programmatic series of studies designed to measure how these platforms impact key behaviors and pathways involved in conflict and substance use. We also assess how these DTx tools treat both substance use and conflict within vulnerable groups, including: Court-involved individuals with intimate partner violence (IPV), Survivors of IPV who present with substance use and trauma, Veterans with a history of substance use and IPV, .
Research
RITchCBT®, a DTx platform for co-occurring conflict and substance use
RITchCBT®, is a customizable 12-session avatar-assisted DTx platform that delivers evidence-based cognitive-behavioral therapy for substance use and co-occurring violence.
Virtual Clinics and Preventative Tools
We provide resources for Western NY, including self-testing, legal and treatment resources, and toolkits and trainings for providers, loved ones, and anyone effected by substance use.
3D SimLab: A Personalized Feedback DTx Tool for Substance Use
3D SimLab and biofeedback projects use 3D models in combination with physical and emotional indicators to help people learn, regulate, and control the pathways among bodily actions, emotions, and internal states.
DTx games for skills training
2D, 3D, and AR/VR DTx games for health use engaging, innovative pathways to help people embody and learn critical skills for relationships, conflict, and emotion regulation.
News
- January 18, 2022
Caroline Easton and her team work to address Rochester's need for mental health and addiction counselors.
- January 04, 2022
Funding from the Patrick P. Lee Foundation will support a new postdoctoral fellowship at the RIT Priority Behavioral Health and Clinical Psychology program.
- November 03, 2020
The Rochester Business Journal talks to Caroline Easton, professor in the biomedical sciences program, about telehealth programs for addiction treatment and mental health treatment.
- October 23, 2020
David Borkholder, Linwei Wang, Caroline Easton, and Adam Smith, all professors at RIT, lead the project team that will use a smart toilet seat to provide in-home monitoring of critical health data for the aging population.