Rowan Egan

We are seeking a psychology PhD student or early-career researcher to collaborate on the development and evaluation of an AI-supported behavioral intervention for type 2 diabetes in Pakistan. The project is a multi-site randomized controlled trial enrolling 2,700 participants across urban and rural Punjab. The intervention delivers personalized behavioral nudges and medication adherence support via WhatsApp and a mobile application in Urdu, Punjabi, and Pashto. The intervention framework integrates personality-adaptive communication approaches informed by Big Five personality theory with principles from Just-In-Time Adaptive Interventions (JITAIs). AI systems are used to support scalable, high-frequency patient engagement while enabling clinical teams to prioritize cases requiring more intensive human oversight. The collaborating psychologist would contribute to the refinement of the intervention model, including the development of behavioral tailoring variables and decision rules governing how and when the system adapts to individual patients. We would particularly welcome researchers with interests in health behavior change, digital mental and behavioral health interventions, computational behavioral science, motivational processes, or implementation research in global health settings. Please reach out to [email protected] if you are interested!

Hi everyone, I’m currently working on an early-stage global health/AI research project focused on improving outcomes for patients with Type 2 diabetes in Pakistan through a scalable behavioral support system. The project is centered around a multi-agent AI care model that provides medication reminders, lifestyle guidance, lab follow-up, and risk monitoring through WhatsApp/mobile platforms in local languages, while keeping physicians involved in all clinical decision-making. The broader goal is to study whether continuous, personalized support can improve long-term adherence and cardiometabolic outcomes in low-resource settings. One of the most important parts of the project is the behavioral modeling layer. We’re especially interested in how different communication strategies, nudges, accountability systems, and personality-adaptive approaches influence medication adherence and patient engagement over time. We’re looking for students with interests or experience in areas such as: Health psychology Behavioral science Habit formation and adherence Digital interventions / mHealth Motivation and behavior change Human-computer interaction Experimental psychology or behavioral modeling This would be a great fit for someone interested in applying psychology research to a real-world healthcare problem with both clinical and technological dimensions. The project is still in development, so there’s room to shape ideas and contribute meaningfully to the behavioral framework and intervention design. If this sounds interesting to you, I’d love to connect and talk more about the project and where psychology research could play a role. Please reach out to me at [email protected]!