Eric Hekler

About

Dr. Eric Hekler is a Professor in the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and the Design Lab at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). His work is characterized by a transdisciplinary approach that intersects health psychology, design, systems science, and public health. His mission is to develop methods and processes that serve diverse populations and promote a more vital, just, and resonantly diverse society and planet. Dr. Hekler has numerous publications across multiple disciplines, active federal and foundation funding including as an NIH R01-funded principal investigator, and has contributed to creating new educational opportunities at UCSD. He is recognized internationally as an expert in applied health science methods and digital health, actively engaging in public health practice within the San Diego region.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Medicine
• Psychology
• Data science
• Social psychology
• Clinical psychology
• Applied psychology
• Management science
• World Wide Web

Selected publications

• Precision Health: The Role of the Social and Behavioral Sciences in Advancing the Vision

  Annals of Behavioral Medicine · 2020 · 150 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  BACKGROUND: In 2015, Collins and Varmus articulated a vision for precision medicine emphasizing molecular characterization of illness to identify actionable biomarkers to support individualized treatment. Researchers have argued for a broader conceptualization, precision health. Precision health is an ambitious conceptualization of health, which includes dynamic linkages between research and practice as well as medicine, population health, and public health. The goal is a unified approach to mat…

  DOI

• Innovative methods for observing and changing complex health behaviors: four propositions

  Translational Behavioral Medicine · 2020 · 95 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Precision health initiatives aim to progressively move from traditional, group-level approaches to health diagnostics and treatments toward ones that are individualized, contextualized, and timely. This article aims to provide an overview of key methods and approaches that can help facilitate this transition in the health behavior change domain. This article is a narrative review of the methods used to observe and change complex health behaviors. On the basis of the available literature, we argu…

  DOI

• Advancing Behavioral Intervention and Theory Development for Mobile Health: The HeartSteps II Protocol

  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · 2022 · 29 citations

  : We outline an innovative modeling paradigm to model and use ILD in real- or near-time to individually tailor JITIAs.

  DOI

• Data-Driven Control of Nonlinear Process Systems Using a Three-Degree-of-Freedom Model-on-Demand Model Predictive Control Framework

  Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research · 2025-04-21 · 3 citations

  articleCorresponding

  This paper presents a Model-on-Demand (MoD) approach to system identification and its integration with a three-degree-of-freedom Kalman filter-based Model Predictive Control (3DoF-KF MPC) framework. MoD estimation represents a hybrid of local and global modeling techniques, judiciously formulated to take advantage of both while not being computationally demanding. The 3DoF-KF MPC algorithm enables responses to set point changes and measured and unmeasured disturbances to be tuned intuitively and…

  PublisherDOI

• The California adverse childhood experiences screening roll-out: a survey study of ACEs screening implementation in primary care

  Frontiers in Public Health · 2025-04-02 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Background: California adopted universal screening of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in January 2020 and dedicated significant financial and human resources to "ACES Aware," a statewide campaign to scale ACEs screening throughout the state. Provider perspectives after the roll-out of ACEs Aware have been understudied. The aim of this study was to understand provider perspectives on universal ACEs screening in primary care. We explored indicators of acceptability, utility, and barriers and…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• SCH: Control Systems Engineering for Counteracting Notification Fatigue: An Examination of Health Behavior Change

  NIH · $995k · 2019–2024

• Optimizing Individualized and Adaptive mHealth Interventions via Control Systems Engineering Methods

  NIH · $3.8M · 2020–2027

• EAGER: Defining a Dynamical Behavioral Model to Support a Just in Time Adaptive Intervention

  NSF · $288k · 2014–2016

Frequent coauthors

• Matthew P. Buman

  Arizona State University

  152 shared

• Guillaume Chevance

  University of California, San Diego

  95 shared

• Job Godino

  Family Health Centers of San Diego

  88 shared

• Natalie M. Golaszewski

  Human Longevity (United States)

  69 shared

• Daniel E. Rivera

  69 shared

• Kevin Patrick

  66 shared

• Predrag Klasnja

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  54 shared

• Jennifer J. Otten

  University of Washington

  45 shared

Labs

• Agile Science Design LabPI

Education

• Ph.D., Public Health

  University of California, San Diego

  2009

• M.S., Public Health

  University of California, San Diego

  2005

• B.A., Environmental Science

  University of California, San Diego

  2001

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