Mobile & Electronic Health Affinity Research Collaborative

Mission of the Mobile and Electronic Health-ARC (ME-ARC) 

  • To conduct state of the art research and training in mobile and electronic health to improve health across the lifespan with an emphasis on underserved and vulnerable populations.
  • To foster transdisciplinary collaboration among researchers across BU who strive to improve health outcomes through digital research and scholarship 
  • Unifying theme:  Target hard to reach and underserved population with digital health interventions 
  • 2025-26 theme:   To enhance our collective and individual expertise in AI for assessment/monitoring and digital health behavior change interventions by applying AI and machine learning methods. 

Since January 2016, the ME-ARC has funded pilot projects, hosted monthly seminars, held networking events, provided mentorship in digital health and established a yearly ME-ARC symposium with national speakers and panels.  The ARC is transdisciplinary and has over 175 member affiliates across numerous schools at Boston University.   

Leadership team:  Founding Director & PI: Belinda Borrelli, PhD (GSDM); Co-Directors: Dan Fulford, PhD (SAR), Joanne Murabito, MD (MED)

External core members: Lisa Quintiliani, PhD (Tufts) 

Core members:  Jordana Muroff, PhD (SW), Yannis Paschalidis, PhD (ENG), William Tomlinson, PhD (SAIL), Greg Frasco (SAIL), Marva Foster, PhD, RN (VA), Nicole Spartano, PhD (MED), Jinying Chen, PhD (MED), Stephanie Shimada, PhD (SPH), Tibor Palfai, PhD (CAS)

Previous core members: Swathi Kiran, PhD, CCC-SLP (SAR), Rebecca Mishuris, MD (MED), Julie Keysor, PhD, PT (SAR) 

Upcoming Monthly Seminars

11/14/25, 12-1pm: “AI-based Empathic Virtual Companion for People Living with Dementia”​

Presenter: Mandy Salomon, PhD, MA​ – CEO and Cofounder, Mentia Health​

12/8/25, 12-1pm: “Smarter Interventions for Stronger Families and the TIES Parenting Program”

Presenter: Adela Timmons, PhD​​ – Director, Technological Interventions for Ecological Systems (TIES) Lab & Professor, University of Texas at Austin, Department of Psychology; CEO, Cooliga Apps

Keep up to date with upcoming events in our Fall Seminar Series by viewing the full schedule here.

Past seminars can be found on our monthly seminars page.

ME-ARC Symposium

The ME-ARC’s Lightning Talks Event entitled “Innovations in Digital Health Interventions” was held on Wednesday, November 20, 2024. For more information on past symposiums, please navigate to our symposium page.

 

The ME-ARC is funded by the Evans Center Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research at Boston University, Founding Director, Katya Ravid.