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 is a clinical psychologist with over a decade of clinical experience. Her research interests lie in digital health interventions with a focus on the prevention and treatment of common mental disorders (CMD) such as depression and anxiety, as well as non-communicable diseases (NCD) through healthy lifestyles, sleep, and mental well-being in a holistic manner. She also looks into validating and implementing cognitive behavioural therapy for CMDS in children, youth and adults, and the development and validation of culturally adapted intervention frameworks.
Alicia has been involved in the LVLUP intervention – a smartphone-based conversational agent-delivered holistic lifestyle intervention for the prevention of non-communicable diseases, and common mental disorders (anxiety and depression). She has also worked on a culturally adapted cognitive behavioural internet-delivered intervention for depressive symptoms and assessed the efficacy and acceptability of an internet-delivered intervention for resilience among college students.
Education
PhD Psychology, 2018
Trinity College Dublin - Dublin, Ireland​
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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.
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Member of the e-mental health research group Trinity College Dublin
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Dissertation: A Culturally Adapted Cognitive Behavioural Internet-delivered Treatment for Depression: Randomised Control Trial.
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M.Sc in Psychology, Emphasis in Clinical Psychology, 2012
Catholic University of Colombia - Bogotá, Colombia​​
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Training in Cognitive behavioural therapy with children, adults, and families.
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Dissertation: Efficacy of a Cognitive Behavioural intervention for internalising behaviour and scratching in children with atopic dermatitis: a pilot study. 2012
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Postgraduate Diplomate / Specialist in Clinical Psychology, 2006
Catholic University of Colombia - Bogotá, Colombia​
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Training in cognitive behavioural therapy with children and adults.
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Research project: prostitution in women: psychosocial factors and future perspectives (qualitative study)
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B. Sc Psychology, 2004
El Bosque University - Bogotá, Colombia
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Thesis: Variables affecting student academic performance. Guidelines for admission, a proposal using structural equation modelling.
Experience
Designing, development, and validation of digital health interventions
m-Health: Mobile Health interventions
Holistic lifestyle interventions
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Elena+ A Pandemic Lifestyle Care Intervention
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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.
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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
e-Health: Internet interventions
SilverCloud health programmes / Dublin - Ireland
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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.
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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.
Culturally adapted interventions
Space from Depression program by SilverCloud
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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
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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
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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
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​Perera, C., Salamanca-Sanabria, A., Caballero-Bernal, J., Feldman, L., Hansen, M., Bird, M., ... & Vallières, F. (2020). No implementation without cultural adaptation: a process for culturally adapting low-intensity psychological interventions in humanitarian settings. Conflict and health, 14, 1-12.
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