Ellen Frank is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Chief Clinical Research Officer of HealthRhythms, Inc., a mobile technology company developing smartphone-based behavioral monitoring for clinical trials and digital intervention platforms.
For more than 35 years, Dr. Frank’s work focused on a better understanding of mood disorders and their treatment. Her 1990 study of maintenance therapies in recurrent unipolar depression is considered a classic in the field. She and her colleagues subsequently demonstrated the preventive efficacy of interpersonal and social rhythm therapy (IPSRT), a psychosocial intervention originally developed for adult outpatients with bipolar I disorder and subsequently modified for a broader range of mood disorders, age groups and treatment settings. Since transitioning to emeritus status, Dr. Frank has focused her attention on the development and testing of smartphone-based digital biomarkers and therapeutic platforms based on the social rhythm regulation conceptual model.
An expert on mood disorders and their treatment, Dr. Frank has published more than 475 peer-review papers, in addition to over 100 book chapters and books. In 1999, Dr. Frank was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Positions
- Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
- Director, Depression Prevention Program, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Education & Training
- PhD, 1979, University of Pittsburgh, Clinical Psychology