Preliminary findings from the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge’s Digital Mental Health Study were featured in a May 2, 2024, Time publication focused on the 2024 TIME100 Most Influential People in Health.

UCLA Depression Grand Challenge Co-Director Michelle Craske, PhD, spoke on an expert panel about mental health research on May 2, 2024, on Capitol Hill.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge achieved a significant milestone on April 30, 2024, when the Digital Mental Health Study (DMHS) completed data collection, 26 months after starting.    The DMHS involved more than 3,000 participants recruited from UCLA Health and the UCLA student body. Objective measures of factors like sleep, physical activity, heart rate and daily routines were captured using digital sensing technology from iPhone, Apple Watch and sleep monitors given to each participant.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge is part of a consortium tapped by Wellcome, a global charitable organization that funds discovery research, to conduct a scoping research project on digital sensing for mental health research.

The NIMH-funded UCLA STAND ALACRITY Center convened academics and stakeholders from UCLA, East Los Angeles College and Imperial Valley College for its second-annual ALACRITY Stakeholder Retreat on March 12, 2024 at UCLA.

 

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge collaborated with a consortium led by The Digital Health Measurement Collaborative Community (DATAcc) by the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe) to submit a proposal to Wellcome, a global charitable organization that funds discovery research, for the opportunity to conduct scoping research to assess how digital sensing technologies may be leveraged to detect and treat mental health conditions.

Today the UCLA Depression Grand Challenge launches a new website. The site features details about the DGC research and dissemination objectives, corresponding studies and projects, the unique operational playbook, organizational structure including stakeholders and advisors, values, recent news, and history of key milestones.

The UCLA Depression Grand Challenge releases STAND Tips, a web-based toolkit available to everyone that provides effective strategies to help manage common stress, anxiety and grief, especially during periods of hardship or following traumatic events.

 Wellcome, a global charitable organization that funds discovery research, issued a request for proposals to extend the work of the digital sensing workshop, hosted at UCLA and co-sponsored by Wellcome and the National Institute of Mental Health in March 2023.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block announced he plans to step down from the helm of UCLA at the end of this school year, a post he has held for 17 years. Block, a neurobiologist, was particularly invested in the DGC to understand and better treat depression.