NIDA’s Smer Research Internship Program is dedicated to increasing the participation of underrepresented minorities in drug abuse and addiction research. The program encourages undergraduate students from across the United States to apply for a NIDA-sponsored internship at a NIDA-funded research site. Woebot Health is one such site, and we were delighted to recently welcome Ashley Lee to the company for an eight-week internship. Her focus is on reviewing the literature about recruiting diverse and underrepresented minorities in digital therapeutic clinical trials, facilitating recruitment in our own trials, presenting to our Clinical Diversity Advisory Board, and so much more. Here’s a snapshot of this energetic and committed student and her work for Woebot Health.
Name: Ashley Lee
What I’m studying: I’m a junior at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, studying public health, and I’m on track to go to medical school.
My background: I’m originally from Southern California and have a strong interest in mental health, and substance use specifically. I work in a research lab with my PI at the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins. The research focuses on adolescents who have co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders. I’ve been able to shadow my PI a couple of times and have just fallen in love with everything to do with child psychiatry and helping to treat patients that have substance use disorders.
What sparked my interest in mental health: My dad went through a mental health disorder when I was in middle school, and that was my first exposure to mental illness. It was back in the 2000s, and there was still a lot of stigma around mental health. My family struggled through it and from that moment on, I saw the importance of mental health and how it affects not only your emotional health, but also your physical health.
What I’m doing at Woebot Health: The focus of my work is to understand and review the literature on diversity, equity, and inclusion in recruitment and enrollment into digital trails for the treatment of substance use disorders. I’m looking at recruitment methods, trends and patterns and diversity of demographic data, and working with both Woebot Health and their Stanford School of Medicine collaboration team to get ready to launch recruitment of the NIDA-funded Phase II substance use disorder study. I also get to attend our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) squad meetings and present to the Clinical Diversity Advisory Board.
Why it matters: There are so many underrepresented populations that aren’t being reached through clinical trials. Achieving greater diversity means we can truly apply findings to the entire population.
How it’s been so far: It’s been a real learning experience about digital therapeutics. My generation is called Gen Z. We’re the people that were born into technology and grew up with it. But I had never heard of digital therapeutics until I got to Woebot Health. The fact that you could have help on a phone so people aren’t afraid to reach out, especially if they don’t have access to healthcare, is amazing.
A quirk, and a love. Ah yes, every new person at Woebot Health is asked this question! A quirk, or maybe more like a hobby, is I like to make mood boards. They’re sometimes called digital scrapbooks, but they’re collections of colors and pictures that I like. A love? The Woebot Team, of course!
