What’s Happening at the Lab

The Caminho Azul Association works to enrich the development and coexistence environments of individuals with ASD. For their 3rd International Congress and Meeting on Autism Spectrum Disorder, the Lab’s Dr. Michael Rich will be presenting a workshop on “Management of Media Use by Children and Young People with Autism”.

Dr. Michael Rich will be presenting to conference for pediatricians from Latin America and Asia on How To Raise Happy, Healthy, Smart, Kind Kids in a World of Screens which will discuss the recent evolution of device usage in our daily lives and discoveries from the Digital Wellness Lab and methods that can be helpful from his book The Mediatrician.

At this biennial gathering of leading social media researchers from around the world, Dr. Zhiying (Zoey) Yue will be presenting two papers:

• “Fact or story: Shaping adolescents’ perceptions of video gaming through AI and Human responses in online forums”
• “Perceived patient-provider communication quality and social media use for health: insights from Pre-, Early- and Post-COVID-19 Pandemic.”

It’s summertime and that means less structure to the day, and potentially more screens and screen battles. Dr. Michael Rich will be joining with the team from Bright & Quirky to present a webinar titled “How to Curb Excessive Screen Use and Have More Family Fun”.

Tech Boston Advocates‘ mission is to connect greater Boston’s innovative start-ups, leading companies, investors and institutions to the fastest-growing technological hubs of the world. The Lab’s Executive Director Cori Stott will be attending their launch event to support their efforts in encouraging collaboration and innovation across the tech sector – including a focus on healthy design!

Each year, the Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) Advisory Committee organizes a Health Summit, and this year Nicole Powell will be giving a presentation, “Connecting the Dots: Digital Practices to Foster Mental Wellness Among Youth,” which will define digital wellness, discuss best practices for device management and digital safety, and emphasize the importance of being resilient.

Zoey (Zhiying) Yue will be presenting a co-authored paper titled Perceived Patient-Provider Communication Quality and Social Media Use for Health: Insights from Pre-, Early-, and Post-COVID-19 Pandemic which unveils the evolving correlation between patient-provider communication quality and social media use for health-related purposes throughout the different stages of the pandemic. The findings of this study offer critical implications for designing future health interventions, highlighting the role of digital media in fulfilling healthcare needs.

On this panel discussion, Dr. Michael Rich will be sharing a presentation on the findings in his new book, The Mediatrician’s Guide, to kick off Panel 1: Screens and Children’s Mental Health which will focus on sharing perspectives on working in children’s education and development. After this presentation, there will be other childhood education and development panelists joining in a discussion on Screens and Impacts on Teaching and Education.

Dr. Michael Rich will be meeting with families and coalition members to discuss his book “The Mediatrician” and healthy habits for screen use during the summer.

At the Digital Parenthood Summit, Dr. Michael Rich will be giving a presentation on Building a Better Internet with Emma Lembke, Viraj Doshi, and Dr. Michael Preston discussing: What would online life look like if the most popular platforms were designed with kids’ and teens well-being—and their ideas—front and center? What positive effects—from mental and physical health and self-esteem to improved relationships “IRL”—might we see if tech investors, designers, policymakers prioritized the voices and futures of their young users?