Dr. Megan Ranney is a practicing emergency physician, federally-funded researcher, and national voice for public health innovation. She is also founding director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health and the Warren Alpert Endowed Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine. In this talk, she will provide an overview of the rationale for using digital technology to engage and improve the health of at-risk populations. She will specifically discuss examples of successful text-message, app-based, and social-media interventions to reduce adolescent conflict and improve psychological wellbeing, as well as examples from national non-profits and COVID response. She will also include a brief discussion of the larger mission of the Center for Digital Health, and close with the opportunity for discussion with the audience.

Dr. Ranney earned her bachelor’s degree in History of Science, graduating summa cum laude, from Harvard University; her medical doctorate, graduating Alpha Omega Alpha, from Columbia University; and her master's in public health from Brown University. She completed her residency in Emergency Medicine and a fellowship in Injury Prevention Research at Brown University. She was previously a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cote d'Ivoire. She lives in Rhode Island with her husband and two children.