Postpartum depression (PPD) is the leading cause of maternal mortality in the United States. However, there are significant gaps in PPD screening, detection, and treatment. A main challenge stems from limitations in existing methods for early PPD diagnosis and subsequent monitoring and intervention. Mobile technology that incorporates interactive interfaces and continuous wearable biosensors holds major potential to augment clinical decision-making and enhance PPD care. A number of compelling research directions exist in effectively developing such systems, including user experience design, sensing accuracy during perinatal stages, clinical integration and interoperability, acceptance and adoption, and privacy and ethics. By focusing on wearable devices that center women and their experiences, my project addresses such challenges and opportunities at the intersections of Human Computer Interaction, inclusive physiological computing, and women’s health.

Ongoing sub-projects:

• Collaboration with Northeastern University for digital phenotyping pregnancy
• Wearable multimodal sensing and machine learning to enable early detection and individualized care for postpartum depression

Research assistants: Ashley Kim (26W), Sai Medikondla (26W) , Ryan Gonzalez (26W, 25F), Katelyn Heavey (26W, 25F, 25W), Caroline Moore (25X), Kiran Jones (25W), Maya Cole (24F), Yvonne Chen (23S), Riya Mehta (23S), Alliya Parvez (24F)

Academic and clinical collaborators: Mandy Glime (Northeastern University PhD Candidate), Prof. Aarti Sathyanarayana, Prof. Karen Fortuna, Sarah Lorde (CTBH), Sai Saanvi Chilakapati (Dartmouth MPH '25), Jill Berch (Dartmouth MPH '26)