MRRI Institute Scientist Amanda Rabinowitz, PhD, was recently featured on KYW Newsradio. During her interview, Dr. Rabinowitz discussed her recent work developing a chatbot to help people with traumatic brain injury. After a brain injury, many people experience depression and loss of motivation. This can have a tremendous impact on their quality of life as well as the course of their rehabilitation. In developing the chatbot, Dr. Rabinowitz and her colleagues incorporated evidence-based principles that promote engagement and behavior change. The chatbot (called RehaBot) operates via text message and could be a key resource for patients between their therapy sessions.

“We think that this is going to be a really effective way to keep people focused on maintaining their progress and give them that sense of joy and accomplishment and pull them out of the depression,” Dr. Rabinowitz noted.

This study is one of many innovative research projects at MRRI that are incorporating rigorous, theory-driven approaches to contribute to the development of novel clinical treatments in neurorehabilitation.

Listen to the full story on KYW Newsradio’s website.