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mHEALTH TRAINING INSTITUTE
A national incubator for transdisciplinary mHealth scientists
The NIH mHealth Training Institute, or mHTI, is a national incubator for developing the rare researchers who can work fluently across medicine, behavioral science, public health, computer science, statistics, engineering, and implementation.
These are the transdisciplinary mHealth “unicorns” the field urgently needs: scientists with deep disciplinary expertise, broad methodological range, collaborative instinct, and the ability to turn digital data into clinically credible intervention.
Through a highly selective national process, the mHTI identifies faculty scholars with the talent and ambition to translate mobile and digital health innovation into measurable health impact. Over nine years, the institute has trained 262 scholars from 55 institutions.
Supported through competitive NIH renewal by OBSSR, ODP, and NIDA (5 R25 DA038167), the mHTI combines virtual preparation with an intensive, week-long institute. Scholars work in cross-disciplinary teams on consequential health problems, guided by nationally recognized faculty mentors.
The curriculum moves scholars from problem definition to rigorous, fundable research across sensing, behavioral measurement, causal inference, adaptive intervention, artificial intelligence, implementation science, ethics, privacy, and team science.
The goal is not to teach researchers how to use new tools. It is to develop scientists who can decide which signals matter, when intervention is warranted, how it should adapt, and whether its effects are scientifically valid and clinically meaningful.
The model is independently evaluated by the Center for Advanced Quantitative Methods at UCLA’s School of Education & Information Studies. A 2025 longitudinal analysis of 16,580 publications from 176 scholars found that, after the institute, their mHealth research became more central and more connected across medicine, public health, behavioral science, and technology.
The mHTI does more than train individuals. It builds the connective tissue of digital health by moving researchers out of disciplinary silos and into durable scientific networks.
Its purpose is simple: to develop the talent, methods, and collaborations needed to turn data into better health.
Vivek Shetty
Program Director
Related Publications:
mHEALTH TRAINING INSTITUTE
Program Philosophy
The mHTI 2.0 is a team science-driven program fostering both knowledge exchange and strong interpersonal relationships among transdisciplinary mHealth teams. As a multidisciplinary institute, it functions as a dual-purpose platform: an educational hub and a research laboratory for team science. By uniting scholars from various disciplines, it serves as a testbed to examine team dynamics, communication, and decision-making.
Educational researchers within the mHTI experiment with different team structures, implement strategies to enhance collaboration, and monitor team performance over time. The knowledge garnered from these studies informs the development of best practices for building and maintaining high-performing multidisciplinary research teams. These insights are used by NIH program offices to measure the impact of the training and develop future training programs.
mHEALTH TRAINING INSTITUTE
Program Structure
As a connector, incubator, and facilitator, the institute cultivates an environment where participants can freely share ideas, technologies, and frameworks, building trust and collaboration across disciplines. Through a blended learning approach, participants engage in intensive team-based projects alongside focused coursework. Multidisciplinary teams tackle real-world health challenges, developing innovative mHealth solutions guided by experienced faculty mentors who employ team science best practices. The curriculum covers essential mHealth domains, including behavior change, biosensing, digital biomarkers, human-centered design, advanced research methods, and machine learning.
Beyond technical skills, the program emphasizes soft skills crucial for transdisciplinary teamwork and career advancement. Regular social interactions strengthen bonds among participants, while ongoing feedback and faculty adjustments ensure program vitality. The mHealthHUB supports continued learning, mentorship, and collaboration among alumni.
mHEALTH TRAINING INSTITUTE
Impact
Over the past nine years, the mHTI has trained 262 faculty and future faculty from 55 institutions across the United States.
- Participants have reported significant gains in mHealth expertise, including advanced methodologies, technologies, and a deeper appreciation for interdisciplinary collaboration.
- The program has empowered trainees to initiate and sustain transdisciplinary mHealth research, expanding their professional networks and securing external funding for their projects.
- Strong alumni connections fostered by the mHTI have led to numerous productive collaborations.
- Recognized as a national leader in mHealth training, the program continues to expand its reach, with a growing number of applicants and the recent inclusion of international researchers in its cohort.
"It was a great opportunity to learn from the experts, make new friends, and enjoy brainstorming novel research ideas with cutting-edge mHealth technologies. I would highly recommend ealy career researchers working in mHealth to apply to this prestigious and highly competitive training program in the future."
- mHTI Alumnus
"The interactions with the mentors was the best part of the institute for me. They answered many of the pressing questions I had as a young researcher starting their career. The presentations about funding, building collaborations with folks of different backgrounds, and finding and holding onto positions were extremely helpful."
- mHTI Alumnus
"Coming into the institute, I felt very isolated at my home institution. I had very few collaborators in mHealth and very few mentors who had the knowledge I sought. After the institute, my eyes have been opened. […] Suddenly the research that I felt was impossible seems very possible."
- mHTI Alumnus
"The exercise of looking at the problem from different angles and through different disciplinary lenses then bringing everything together under a cohesive problem statement while highlighting the expertise of the team to address the problem."
- mHTI Alumnus
"In all the conversations I have with scholars, I heard that this was a really valuable experience for them, and several of them have told me that this was one of the most valuable things they have done professionally in their careers."
- mHTI Alumnus
"The ability to interact with different skill-sets but similar goals was invaluable. I have come to appreciate the diversity of backgrounds in the field of mHealth, and the necessity of different disciplines to form a successful mHealth team. In addition, the daily lectures were excellent - they covered a broad array of topics, but with the specificity that made them still useful."
- mHTI Alumnus
