Alicia Salamanca-Sanabria, Ph.D.

Clinical psychologist and researcher in digital health interventions

Clinical psychologist, researcher, and expert in digital mental health interventions bringing experience in industry and academia. Expertise in designing, implementing, and conducting digital health interventions. Experience working on Anxiety, depression, sleep, healthy lifestyle and culturally adapted interventions.

About Me.

Alicia Salamanca Sanabria has a background in clinical psychology with over a decade of experience. She completed her PhD at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, focusing on digital health interventions for depression. Currently, her work centers on developing holistic digital health interventions aimed at the prevention and treatment of common mental disorders (CMDs), such as depression and anxiety, as well as non-communicable diseases (NCDs). She adopts a comprehensive approach, exploring how healthy lifestyles, sleep, and mental well-being intersect to promote overall health.

Alicia is dedicated to validating and implementing cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for CMDs across all age groups—children, youth, and adults—and developing culturally adapted intervention frameworks to ensure accessibility and effectiveness across diverse populations.

She is a research scientist at the Institute for Human Development and Potential (IHDP), part of the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (ASTAR) in Singapore. Her current projects include leading the HAPPY study, which evaluates a holistic lifestyle mHealth intervention to prevent type 2 diabetes and CMDs in women with gestational diabetes. Additionally, she contributes to women’s health initiatives, including AI-powered symptom tracking for women with endometriosis and research into menstrual cycle health.

Recently, Alicia received funding from the Ministry of Education in Singapore to develop DREAM (Digital InteRvention to promotE Adolescent sleep, learning, and Mental Well-being (DREAM)). This innovative project combines co-designed digital cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) tailored for adolescents, with data from Oura rings and quantitative encephalogram (QEEG) technology, offering a comprehensive approach to enhancing adolescent sleep, learning, and mental health.

Education

PhD Psychology, 2018
Trinity College Dublin - Dublin, Ireland

Developed and implemented an empirical methodology for culturally adapted internet-delivered interventions, including the design and analysis of the Cultural Relevance Questionnaire (CRQ) which has been used in Spain, Ireland, Ecuador, Venezuela, Germany, and Indonesia.
Member of the e-mental health research group Trinity College Dublin
Dissertation: A Culturally Adapted Cognitive Behavioural Internet-delivered Treatment for Depression: Randomised Control Trial.

M.Sc in Psychology, emphasis in Clinical psychology, 2012
Catholic University of Colombia - Bogotá, Colombia

Training in Cognitive behavioural therapy with children, adults, and families
Dissertation: Efficacy of a Cognitive Behavioural intervention for internalising behaviour and scratching in children with atopic dermatitis: a pilot study. 2012

Postgraduate Diplomate /Specialist in Clinical Psychology, 2006
Catholic University of Colombia – Bogotá, Colombia

Training in cognitive behavioural therapy with children and adults.
Research project: prostitution in women: psychosocial factors and future perspectives (qualitative study)

B. Sc Psychology, 2004
El Bosque University - Bogotá, Colombia

Thesis: Variables affecting student academic performance. Guidelines for admission, a proposal using structural equation modelling.

Experience

Designing, developing, and validating digital health interventions

Currently: Principal investigator

Digital InteRvention to promotE Adolescent sleep, learning, and Mental well-being (DREAM)

Sleep is crucial in preserving and optimising adolescents' learning, cognition, and mental well-being. This project aims to develop and test the initial efficacy and technical feasibility of a culturally relevant dCBT-I to promote sleep, learning, and mental well-being among adolescents in Singapore. The intervention is based on CBT-I, including Oura rings and quantitative encephalogram (QEEG) technology to provide a comprehensive approach to improving adolescent sleep, learning, and mental health.

Currently: Research Scientist

Harnessing humAn Potential and imProving health sPan in women and their children StudY

The study consists of a 1-year randomised controlled trial (RCT) with a 2-year follow-up period. 204 Women with a history of gestational diabetes were randomised to either Group 1 (Intervention) or Group 2 (comparison). The intervention group receives the “LVL UP App”, a smartphone-based, conversational agent-delivered holistic lifestyle intervention focused on three pillars: Move More (PA), Eat Well (Diet), and Stress Less (mental wellbeing). Also, Women from both groups were provided with an Oura ring for tracking physical activity, sleep, and heart rate variability (a proxy for stress), and the “HAPPY App”, a mHealth app which provides health promotion information about PA, diet, sleep, and mental wellbeing, as well as display body mass index, blood pressure, and results from the oral glucose tolerance tests. Currently, collecting follow-up data and analysing.

Publications

Salamanca-Sanabria, A., Liew, S. J., Mair, J., De Iorio, M., Ling, Y. D. Y., Tint, M. T., ... & Eriksson, J. G. (2024). A holistic lifestyle mobile health intervention for the prevention of type 2 diabetes and common mental disorders in Asian women with a history of gestational diabetes: a randomised control trial with 3-year follow-up protocol. Trials, 25(1), 443. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-024-08247-x

Previous projects:
Holistic lifestyle interventions

Postdoctoral researcher

The LvL UP App: a smartphone-based Chabot-delivered intervention for the prevention of non-communicable diseases, and common mental disorders (Anxiety and depression). The LvL UP app was designed to be delivered in Singapore, the content includes educational content on physical activity, diet, and mental well-being strategies using the unified protocol for emotional disorders, positive psychology, and cognitive behavioural therapy.

https://lvlup.com.sg

Publications

Castro, O., Mair, J. L., Salamanca-Sanabria, A., Alattas, A., Keller, R., Zheng, S., ... & Kowatsch, T. (2023). Development of “LvL UP 1.0”: a smartphone-based, conversational agent-delivered holistic lifestyle intervention for the prevention of non-communicable diseases and common mental disorders. Frontiers in Digital Health, 5, 1039171. https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2023.1039171

Salamanca-Sanabria, A., Jabir, A. I., Lin, X., Alattas, A., Kocaballi, A. B., Lee, J., ... & Tudor Car, L. (2023). Exploring the perceptions of mHealth interventions for the prevention of common mental disorders in university students in Singapore: qualitative study. Journal of medical internet research, 25, e44542. doi: 10.2196/44542

Mair, J. L., Castro, O., Salamanca-Sanabria, A., Frese, B. F., von Wangenheim, F., Tai, E. S., ... & Müller-Riemenschneider, F. (2023). Exploring the potential of mobile health interventions to address behavioural risk factors for the prevention of non-communicable diseases in Asian populations: a qualitative study. BMC Public Health, 23(1), 753. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-023-15598-8

Elena+ A Pandemic Lifestyle Care Intervention

Elena+ App: a smartphone-based conversational agent intervention to promote a healthy lifestyle during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The app was designed as part of an interdisciplinary team worldwide and tested in Europe, Latin America, and the U.S. Elena+ utilized varied intervention
components to deliver a psychoeducation-focused coaching program on the topics of: COVID-19 information, physical activity, mental health (anxiety, loneliness, mental resources), sleep, and diet & nutrition.

https://www.c4dhi.org/projects/elena-a-pandemic-lifestyle-care-intervention/

Publication

Ollier, J., Suryapalli, P., Fleisch, E., von Wangenheim, F., Mair, J. L., Salamanca-Sanabria, A., & Kowatsch, T. (2023). Can digital health researchers make a difference during the pandemic? Results of the single-arm chatbot-led Elena+: Care for COVID-19 interventional study. Frontiers in Public Health, 11, 1185702 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1185702

e-Health: Internet interventions

SilverCloud health programmes / Dublin - Ireland

Internet-Delivered Intervention Promoting Resilience

I supported the conceptualization, and validation of the intervention as a pilot randomized control trial with college students in Ireland.

https://www.silvercloudhealth.com/

Publication

Roig, A. E., Mooney, O., Salamanca-Sanabria, A., Lee, C. T., Farrell, S., & Richards, D. (2020). Assessing the efficacy and acceptability of a web-based intervention for resilience among college students: pilot randomized controlled trial. JMIR formative research, 4(11), e20167. DOI: 10.2196/20167

Culturally adapted interventions

Space from Depression program by SilverCloud

I made the adaptation and testing of the adapted intervention for Colombian college students. Spanish version “Yo puedo sentirme bien” / I can feel good

Publications

Recent adaptation of “yo puedo sentirme bien” in Colombia and Mexico

Albor, Y., González, N., Benjet, C., Salamanca-Sanabria, A., Hernández-de la Rosa, C., Eslava-Torres, V., ... & Suárez, K. (2024). Cultural Adaptation and User Satisfaction of an Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behavioral Program for Depression and Anxiety Among College Students in Two Latin American Countries: Focus Group Study With Potential Users and a Cross-Sectional Questionnaire Study With Actual Users. JMIR Formative Research, 8, e63298. doi: 10.2196/63298

Testing of the intervention in Colombia

Salamanca-Sanabria, A., Richards, D., Timulak, L., Connell, S., Perilla, M. M., Parra-Villa, Y., & Castro-Camacho, L. (2020). A culturally adapted cognitive behavioural internet-delivered intervention for depressive symptoms: randomized controlled trial. JMIR Mental Health, 7(1), e13392.doi: 10.2196/13392

Development of an empirical cultural adaptation framework for digital health interventions – Including the Cultural Relevance Questionnaire CRQ

Salamanca-Sanabria, A., Richards, D., & Timulak, L. (2019). Adapting an internet-delivered intervention for depression for a Colombian college student population: an illustration of an integrative empirical approach. Internet interventions, 15, 76-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.invent.2018.11.005