News & Events
Advanced Methods for Mental Health Services Research Webinar Series
Date: March 19, 2025
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. ET
Presenter: Nicholas J. Seewald, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Topic: Target Trial Emulation for Evaluating Mental Health Policy
About this webinar: Estimating the impact of mental health policy is challenging, often due to small sample sizes and high heterogeneity across different policy implementations. Target trial emulation, an approach to designing rigorous nonexperimental studies by “emulating” key features of a clinical trial, can help. Most commonly used outside of policy contexts, this approach is also valuable for policy evaluation as policies typically are not randomly assigned. In this webinar, I introduce the policy trial emulation framework and discuss how it can be used to assess the effect of a health policy on clinical or population health outcomes.
Nicholas J Seewald, PhD
Nicholas J Seewald, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Biostatistics, in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. He develops and applies statistical methodology to answer key questions in public health and medicine through thoughtful study design and analysis combined with deep collaboration with applied scientists. His work is motivated by problems across a wide array of applications, including physical activity, oncology, and substance use and related policy, and spans the entire investigative process from formulating a research question through study design and data analysis.
Dr. Seewald’s goal is to develop statistical methods that empower scientists to make impactful contributions in their fields. His methodological work involves building tools to address important statistical issues in a way that is accessible and understandable to applied researchers. His work is primarily related to causal inference – the use of data to make causal conclusions through precise assumptions, strong study design, and estimation techniques – with complex repeated-measures data.
Recent News
Congratulations to the IMPACT study team for their recent publication, 'Promoting Evidence-Based Tobacco Cessation Treatment in Community Mental Health Clinics: Results of a Pilot Implementation Study' in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry!
Advanced Methods Training Videos
"Building Effective Adaptive Interventions in Mental Health Services Research" - Dr. Nicholas Seewald, PhD
"Using Difference-in-Differences in Mental Health Services Research" - Ms. Elizabeth Stone, MSPH, PhD candidate
"Methods for Combining Experimental and Population Data to Estimate Population Average Treatment Effects" - Dr. Elizabeth Stuart, PhD
Past Events
NAMIWalks
June 1, 2024 from 8-11AM at Hunt Valley Towne Center
ALACRITY Center team members participated in NAMI Maryland's annual NAMIWalks event to promote mental health awareness
ALACRITY Center Research-in-Progress Meeting
- February 2025 – Dr. Esti Iturralde, our Implementation Research Institute Fellow and a clinical psychologist and research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research presented, “Personalized Diabetes Prevention Care for Younger Adults with Serious Mental Illness.” in conjunction with the Department of Mental Health Seminar Series
- January 2025 – Ms. Victoria Green, PhD student in the Johns Hopkins Department of Mental Health and ALACRITY Center Trainee presented, “Examining the Impact of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Programs Among Adults with Serious Mental Illness in Maryland: Preliminary Findings” based on her thesis work including with Dr. Gennusa, mentored by Dr. Bandara, in conjunction with the Department of Mental Health Seminar Series
- December 2024 – Dr. Jiani Yu, Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College presented, “Medicare Telehealth Delivery during the Public Health Emergency and Beyond.”
- November 2024 – Dr. Kiara Alvarez, Assistant Professor in the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health presented, “Systems-level suicide prevention in pediatric settings: Leveraging the roles of caregivers and community health workers.”
Trainings
Center for Practice Transformation at the University of Minnesota
- Stacy D. Goldsholl, MA presented, Smoking Cessation in Field-Based Mental Health Services
Department of Mental Health+UCLA Public Mental Health Partnership
- Joseph V. Gennusa, PhD, RDN, LDN presented, What Field-Based Mental Health Service Providers Need to Know About Cardiovascular Disease Risk
- Stacy D. Goldsholl, MA presented, Smoking Cessation in Community Mental Health Services
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Invited Talks
- January 2025 - Dr. Elizabeth Stuart presented, "Integrating Data for Causal Inference" at the Weill Cornell Department of Population Health Sciences Grand Rounds.
- December 2024 - Dr. Christina Yuan presented, "Bringing Interpreters into the Care Team: Identifying Team-based Implementation Strategies to Optimize the Role of language Access Services in Child Mental Health Settings" at the Johns Hopkins Business of Health Initiative Work-In-Progress Seminar
- October 2024 - Dr. Sachini Bandara presented, "Measuring the Implementation of Behavioral Health Policies" for the Stanford University Center for Dissemination and Implementation.
- October 2024 - Dr. Elizabeth Stuart presented, "Integrating Data for Causal Inference" at the Brown University Department of Biostatistics 30th Anniversary Symposium.
- October 2024 - Dr. Gail Daumit presented, "Reaching Improved Cardiovascular Health for Persons with Serious Mental Illness" at the National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Weekly Seminar Series.
- August 2024 - Ms. Alison Terry presented, "Reaching Improved Cardiovascular Health for Persons with Serious Mental Illness" for the Johns Hopkins Psychiatry Residency Program.
- July 2024 - Ms. Stacy Goldsholl presented, "Tobacco Smoking Cessation in Field-Based Mental Health Services" at the Johns Hopkins Community Psychiatry Program Resident Seminar Series (and planned March, 2025).
Johns Hopkins Welch Center Grand Rounds
On November 1st, Dr. Rheanna Platt presented, Promoting Maternal Mental Health in Pediatric Primary Care and Early Childhood Settings
On November 8th, Dr. Christina Yuan presented, Preparing for Launch: Using a Community-Engaged Approach to Planning an Implementation Trial to Advance Cardiovascular Health Equity
Conferences
- March 2025 - Dr. Michael Rosenblum and Mr. Joshua Betz led a half-day course, “Improving Precision and Power in Randomized Trials by Leveraging Baseline Variables” at the International Biometric Society Eastern North American Region (ENAR) Spring Meeting in New Orleans, LA.
- January 2025 - Dr. Beth McGinty presented, "Embedding Qualitative and Quantitative Methods for Policy Evaluation" at the International Conference on Health Policy Statistics in San Diego, California.
- December 2024 - Dr. Beth McGinty presented, "Systems Matter: Why Systems Thinking is Essential for Bridging the Mental Health Implementation Research Gap" at the International Alliance of Mental Health Research Funders (IAMHRF) Winter Forum.
- October 2024 - Dr. Michael Rosenblum presented, "Improving Precision in Estimating Marginal Treatment Effects in Randomized Trials" at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) Trial Innovation Center DIDACT Symposium.
- October 2024 - Dr. Gail Daumit presented, "Lifestyle Behavior Changes to Improve Physical and Mental Health of People Living with Serious Mental Illness" at the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology Fall Conference.