NIMHD DSS: Ricardo F. Muñoz, Ph.D.

Presentation Objectives:

• Define massive open online interventions and digital apothecaries.
• Present the evidence base for the effectiveness of digital interventions to prevent and treat health conditions.
• Describe the essential difference between consumable and non-consumable interventions.
• Illustrate how four types of interventions that can be provided by digital apothecaries could contribute to making health care a universal human right.

Ricardo F. Muñoz, Ph.D., immigrated from Perú to the Mission District in San Francisco in 1961, at age 10. He earned his undergraduate degree at Stanford and his doctorate at the University of Oregon. He joined the UCSF Department of Psychiatry at San Francisco General Hospital in 1977, transitioning to Professor Emeritus in 2012 when he joined Palo Alto University as Distinguished Professor of Clinical Psychology and founding director of the Institute for International Internet Interventions (i4Health).

Dr. Muñoz specializes in the prevention and treatment of depression, smoking cessation, and digital interventions. He has served on three National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Consensus Committees on the prevention of mental disorders. Currently, Dr. Muñoz serves as chair of an expert panel for a CDC-funded project to develop and disseminate web-based tools in English and Spanish to support the cognitive, affective, and behavioral well-being of parents, children, and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. The website will be hosted on the National Academies website.

Dr. Muñoz was inducted as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science “for distinguished contributions towards the prevention of major depression and the development of Internet interventions to improve mental health worldwide.”

Additional Information:

• The seminar will be videocast and made available in the NIH Video archives and on the NIMHD website after the seminar.
• Sign language interpreters will be provided.
• Individuals with disabilities who need reasonable accommodation to participate should contact Edgar Dews at 301-402-1366 or the Federal Relay at 1-800-877-8339.