Invited Speaker: Linda M. Collins, PhD

Webinar Description: In this talk, Dr. Linda Collins will offer a conceptual introduction to the Multiphase Optimization Strategy (MOST). MOST is an interdisciplinary framework for optimization of behavioral and biobehavioral interventions, e.g. smoking cessation, weight loss, and HIV care continuum interventions. MOST enables the investigator to develop interventions that are more effective and efficient, and also to strategically weigh effectiveness against economy and scalability.

Dr. Linda M. Collin's research interests are focused on development, dissemination, and application of the multiphase optimization strategy (MOST), an engineering-inspired methodological framework for optimizing and evaluating behavioral, biobehavioral, and social-structural interventions. The objective of MOST is to improve intervention effectiveness, efficiency, economy, and scalability. Dr. Collins is currently collaborating on research applying MOST to develop optimized behavioral interventions in the areas of smoking cessation, prevention of excessive drinking and risky sex in college students, and HIV services. She is also collaborating with a health economist to develop methods for optimizing interventions for cost-effectiveness, and with several colleagues on methods to improve optimization of adaptive interventions. Her research has been funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and the National Science Foundation.

Dr. Collins’s publications have appeared in journals in the behavioral science, quantitative methodology, medicine, and engineering fields. She is currently Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Biostatistics, School of Global Public Health, New York University.