VISN 1 MIRECC Staff: Erin D. Reilly, M.Ed., Ph.D.
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Erin D. Reilly, M.Ed., Ph.D.
Dr. Erin D. Reilly is a licensed Clinical Research Psychologist at the VA Bedford Healthcare System. She is Co-Director for the VISN 1 Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC), Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, and a co-Investigator with the VA Virtual Care Consortium of Research (VC CORE). Her research focuses on developing and evaluating technology-delivered pain interventions to Veteran who may not find current treatments options to “fit” with their current needs (accessibility, lack of Veteran-centered content, etc.). To address this issue, her lab combines user-center design and empirically-based pain interventions to create socially-interactive and engaging digital products that extend care to Veteran’s at homes and beyond. She is particularly interested in socially-interactive clinical technologies to help improve engagement and care retention. Dr. Reilly is a past recipient of a 5-year VA Rehabilitation R&D Career Development Award (RR&D CDA-2) to develop an online therapeutic intervention based in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for Veterans with chronic pain using an embodied conversation agent as an online guide. She is also the recipient of an RR&D pilot award to develop a mobile application supporting student Veterans success in higher education and RRDT Merit Review Award to assess the efficacy of two online interventions for chronic pain. Additional digital therapeutic projects supported by VA, NIH, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation include evaluating AI systems, mobile applications, and social robotics, and she has over 40 peer-reviewed published article in counseling, technology, and professional development.
Education
- B.A., Psychology and Women’s & Gender Studies, Clark University, 2008
- M.Ed., Educational Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, 2014
- Ph.D., Counseling Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, 2016
Areas of Research Interest
- Technology delivered behavioral interventions
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
- Chronic Pain, Insomnia, Substance Use, and PTSD
- Academic functioning and student Veterans
Projects & Grants
- Assessing the Efficacy of an Acceptance-Based Digital Intervention to Improve Functioning for Veterans with Chronic Pain (PI)
Funded by a Rehabilitation Research and Development (R&D) Merit Review Award, this project will conduct a fully-powered three-site efficacy trial (n=200) comparing Veteran ACT for Chronic Pain (VACT-CP) to Online Pain School to assess improvements in pain-related functioning and quality of life. 2024 – 2028. - Feasibility and Acceptability of an Online Acceptance and Mindfulness Based Program for Chronic Pain and Substance Use (co-PI)
Funded by an HSR&D Pain/Opioid CORE RSF Pilot Grant, this project will revise program content of a guided, online ACT for chronic pain and substance use intervention and conduct a stage IA pilot feasibility trial. 2023 – 2025. - Developing an Online Therapeutic Intervention for Chronic Pain in Veterans (PI)
Funded by a Rehabilitation Research and Development (R&D) CDA-2 award to develop, iteratively revise, and evaluate an online Veteran ACT intervention for Chronic Pain for Veterans (VACT-CP). 2019 – 2023. - Designing a Mobile App to Support Academic Success for Student Veterans(PI)
Funded by a Rehabilitation Research and Development (RR&D) SPiRE grant, the primary aim of this project is to develop and collect initial usability and feasibility data on a mobile application for student Veterans managing mental health concerns to support their academic functioning. 2022-2024. - Using Socially-Assistive Robotics to Help Veterans Self-Manage Chronic Pain (PI)
Funded by a VISN1 Strategic Objective Research Team Award to develop and explore social robotics as a platform for chronic pain management via a pilot feasibility study. 2016 – 2021. - Mobile Intervention to Improve Functional Health and Community Engagement of Post-9/11 Veterans with Chronic Insomnia: Does Enhancing Physical Activity Help? (site-PI)
Funded by the Boston Roybal Center for Active Living, the goal of this project is to investigate whether Veterans with chronic insomnia benefit from mobile-app-based self-management support to enhance sleep alone or coupled with support to increase physical activity. 2017-2019.
