The Scientific Advisory Committee guides the research and development efforts of the ACORN Collaboration. Takuya Minami, PhD, the ACORN Director of Research and Development chairs this committee. 

Current Members:

Jeb Brown, Center for Clinical Informatics

Christophe Cazauvieilh, Psychologue -Psychothérapeute

Heidi Brattland, Norwegian University of Technology and Science

Patrizia Odyniec, Universität Witten/Herdecke , Witten · Department of Psychology and Psychotherapy

Simon Goldberg, VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Washington, D.C

Thomas Probst, Danube University Krems , Krems an der Donau, Department for Psychotherapy and Biopsychosocial Health

Takuya Minami, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Center for Clinical Informatics

Cindy Hernandez, Center for Clinical Informatics

Justin Turner, Center for Clinical Informatics

Ashley Simon, Center for Clinical Informatics

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    Second meeting of the current ACORN Scientific Advisory Committee October 6th, 2017

     

    Effect Size Change Over Time

    • New analysis of effect size change, based on when patients began treatment rather than ending date. This avoids artifacts created by patients with longer lengths of treatment ending up in subsequent years.
    • Sample size of therapists and patients is reduced
    • Therapists retained in this sample averaged larger effect size than the broader population of therapists participating in ACORN.
    • Analyses addressed artifacts associated with regression to the mean
    • Results suggests that therapist who log in at least twice a month to review their data average significantly larger effect sizes in their second year than therapists who are less engaged in monitoring results.

    Toolkit Engagement and Outcomes for At Risk Cases

    • Thomas Probst suggest that we drill down and look at the relationship between therapists engagement and effect size in year two as a function of whether cases were ever flagged as off track with regard to recovery curve at any point in treatment. Great suggestion!!
    • Attached contains brief summary of results accompanied by SAS output for the analyses used.
    • 32% of cases were flagged as off track at least once during the episode. These are labeled as "signal cases". Length of treatment for these cases was twice as long as non-signal cases.
    • Effect size for signal cases much smaller than for non-signal cases.
    • Therapists engagement is associated with larger effect sizes for signal cases. Therapist engagement not predictive of effect size for non-signal cases.

    Interested in Joining?

    Regular members

    Individual associated with the ACORN collaboration who have research interest and expertise.

    Expressed desire to contribute to the overall research and development activities of the collaboration.

    Provide guidance regarding areas of interest and priorities for the collaboration.

    Research Associates

    Individuals with demonstrated advanced statistical and research expertise

    May be from outside the universe of ACORN participants.

    Demonstrated research interest in methodologies to improve treatment outcomes as evidenced by preparation of peer reviewed publications.

    Demonstrated expertise in use of statistical software packages, including SAS, SPSS and R.

    Singed Business Area Associates agreements and related confidentiality agreements.

    Completed HIPPA training

    Have access to ACORN Toolkit data, including raw data files.

    Perform data analyses using ACORN servers. No data is exported for analyses outside of the secure ACORN environment.