September 30, 2012

Paulina Sockolow, DrPH, Assistant Professor in the Health Sciences Department, attended the NIH Mobile Health Summer Institute at Northeastern University in Boston from July 29-August 3 this summer. Sockolow was one of only 30 international applicants from across disciplines that were selected by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to participate in the weeklong workshop about mobile health. Sockolow and her peers worked collaboratively in a small transdisciplinary team and discussed the topics of understanding diverse populations, designing mobile health apps, and performing research in international settings.

Sockolow was particularly interested in a presentation about how to do interdisciplinary academic research and troubleshoot issues when forming multidisciplinary teams. “People are successful in what they’ve done, but when you’re trying to come together and mix approaches- suddenly they’re not successful. Roles and facilitators emerge naturally, and that’s what will happen in a group setting,” explained Sockolow.