Exploring Shared Decision Making and Expert Systems in Mental Healthcare

Ongoing work on computational and interpersonal decision science

I am pleased to share that, after recently publishing a paper at Frontiers in Psychology¹ as co-author with other Spanish colleagues, I am currently working on the publication of two new pieces as sole author, also in high-profile and high-impact journals: MDPI’s Healthcare and SocSci. (Correction: after checking with my doctoral research director, due to the predatory nature of MDPI publishing, I will most likely not be contributing to these journals. I am adding as a footnote² a list of better, potential alternative choices, I am now considering).

My main research project (2020-26) focuses on the topic of shared and supported decision making. While cognitive bias and preferences of those involved, social contagion and socioeconomical and cultural considerations still are at the forefront of my work, the use of expert systems and the implementation of best practices through open and transparent standards in mental healthcare is increasingly getting center stage as one of the potential solutions to enhance the effectiveness of treatments.

In this regard, I am currently undertaking a virtual ethnography on artificial intelligence applied to increasing the well-being of students and researchers themselves with funding provided by the EU COST science and technology cooperation action ReMO³, and working on my own special call on open technologies and one health for the African Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences⁴ along with GNUHealth leader Dr. Luís Falcón (edit: postponed this call to focus on the co-authoring of a book chapter with the co-chair of the now ongoing United Nations Science Summit co-chair and EU CORDIS founder editor, Declan Kirrane, and Dr. Funmilola Oluwafemi, assistant chief scientific officer at the Space Life Sciences Division of the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), Abuja, Nigeria).

Also starting to develop an open source research and clinical application to put all principles into practice⁵, as well as soon launching a new EU COST action proposal (BEACON: Bridging Education and Action for Comprehensive One Health Nurturing⁶ ) to tackle this issues collectively in a coordinated fashion as a consortium of experts within the European Research Area (and beyond).

In addition to these publications and projects, I am also preparing a chapter on this topic for a Routledge handbook, and three presentations for the World Psychiatric Association congress that will take place in Vienna this September to share some early results. Other minor publications are also in the works, along with an event on the political abuse of psychiatry, a topic of major concern when we think of the potential for misuse any of the technologies, and the practice itself, has⁷.

1. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1166919/full

2. Anthropology and Medicine - Taylor & Francis Online: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/canm20/current

Anthropology in Action - Berghahn Journals: https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/aia/aia-overview.xml

Community Mental Health Journal - Springer: https://www.springer.com/journal/10597

Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry An International Journal of Cross-Cultural Health Research - Spinger: https://www.springer.com/journal/11013

Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences - Cambridge University Press: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/epidemiology-and-psychiatric-sciences

Ethos: Journal of the Society for Psychological Anthropology - American Anthropological Association: https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15481352

Europe's Journal of Psychology: https://ejop.psychopen.eu/index.php/ejop

Health - SAGE Publications: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/hea

International Journal of Culture and Mental Health - Taylor & Francis Online: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rccm20

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health - MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute): https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

International Journal of Social Psychiatry - SAGE Publications: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/isp

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography - SAGE Publications: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/jce

Journal of Public Mental Health - Emerald Publishing Limited: https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/1746-5729

Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology - American Psychological Association (APA): https://guilfordjournals.com/loi/jscp

Medical Anthropology Quarterly - American Anthropological Association: https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15481387

Medical Anthropology: Cross Cultural Studies in Health and Illness - Taylor & Francis Online: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/gmea20/current

Psychological Reports - SAGE Publications: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/prxa

Scandinavian Journal of Psychology - John Wiley & Sons: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14679450

Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology - Springer: https://www.springer.com/journal/127

Social Science and Medicine - Elsevier: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/social-science-and-medicine

Social Theory and Health

The International Journal of Indian Psychology - Indian Psychology Institute: http://ijip.in

Transcultural Mental Health - The University of Melbourne (Department of Psychiatry): This journal does not have a dedicated URL. It might be a research center or a program rather than a journal.

Transcultural Psychiatry - SAGE Publications: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/tps

3. https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA19117/

4. https://health.int.eu.org

5. https://experiment.com/projects/designing-an-open-source-expert-system-for-mental-health-a-research-and-development-initiative

6. https://one.health.int.eu.org/

7. https://enricgarcia.md/thesis/abuse.html