AI Beyond the Therapy Session: Human Connection, Family Care, and AI with Dr. Shiri Sharvit

Okay.

Uh, so I'm a clinical psychologist by practice, uh, with over two decades of experience in the field.

My career focused primarily on patients with chronic health conditions and my specialty and special interest, uh, I would say, was on developing family-based interventions to include their family members in their care to help them manage their chronic condition better.

Uh, started being, uh, intrigued by technology, uh, about 25 years ago, where I st- I was recruited to work in an EdTech company.

From there, I, uh, started, uh, providing advice to parents on, uh, parent, o- parents online forums, uh, many years before Facebook was, uh, conceived at Harvard.

And then when I moved to California, uh, to work at Stanford, I, uh, uh, started delivering care, uh, virtually, primarily first through, uh, Skype and then, uh, primarily through Zoom.

At Stanford, I was intrigued, uh, by many things, but, uh, because the university is nested within the Silicon Valley, it was really...

Uh, I felt like a researcher in a candy store, uh, with tons of, uh, additional, uh, ideas and avenues that I, uh, was unable to explore before or was not that much aware of.

So got, uh, intrigued and, uh, joined the NIH trials, testing apps for eating disorders and virtual reality, uh, interventions and digital interventions and treatments and so on.

Also received a number of research grants myself, uh, to study family-based interventions.

Uh, already in 2016, we received a grant to study couple-based interventions for patients post-bariatric surgery that was delivered over Zoom, uh, so a couple of years prior to the pandemic.

In 2017, I was invited with a number of colleagues, uh, from both Stanford and Palo Alto University to deliver a webinar on behalf of the American Psychological Association on using technology in clinical practice.

I think it was one of the first webinars that showcased a number of interventions and helped therapists think of how to, uh, develop skills and tools and conceptualize where technology can be integrated into their care, and what are the skills that could be, or tasks that could be delivered and delegated to AI technology.

When we delivered the, the webinar, I think it was June 2017, uh, I remember that based on the feedback that we received, I always say we felt the virtual tomatoes, uh, [laughs] uh, you know, um, thrown at the screen.

So some of the clinicians with whom we talked were excited and intrigued, some were appalled.

But, uh, and I continued delivering, uh, trainings on how to use technology in clinical practice, always with lukewarm acceptance until COVID came.

And, uh, I'm very proud of my field that adapted really quickly to, uh, these, uh, new circumstances and started to have, uh, more informed conversations with individuals in the field.

And also they were more open to, uh, exploring ways for how they can inte-integrate, um, technology in their practice.

In 2019, as you mentioned earlier, I also joined, uh, Elios Health as the first employee, the chief clinical officer, and, uh, stayed with the company until, uh, last year.

This wasn't only technology in clinical practice, this was already AI in clinical practice.

So the invitations that I received gradually, uh, to- Uh, received to deliver talks and trainings.

We're gradually moved from how to use technology in clinical practice to how to deliver AI and incorporate it in our work as clinicians.

Uh, I think that I've gave, I've given probably more than 50, um, invited talks on the topic.

Uh, so, uh, both in the US and internationally.

So I think there's a really great interest, and, uh, I love talking about that topic.