Richard Fletcher, PhD

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

Dr. Fletcher holds degrees in Physics, Electrical Engineering, and Information Technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and also holds a Research Scientist Appointment at Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Pediatrics and Global Health.

Research Interest

Dr.Fletcher designs and develops mobile technologies for application to healthcare and medicine. Psychiatry, in particular, has been an emerging area for technology innovation and therapeutic interventions applied to anxiety disorders, addictions, autism, and behavioral therapy. Dr. Fletcher also leads several technology development efforts in Global Health, including physiological monitoring, disease surveillance, and epidemiology applied to HIV/AIDS, vaccination studies, and maternal and child health in Uganda, India and other developing regions. By repurposing many of the tools originally developed for engaging disconnected populations in developing countries, Dr. Fletcher is interested in creating technologies that can help improve access to health services to marginalized and homeless populations here in the US and also directly address mental health issues that contribute to homelessness. Dr. Fletcher currently works with the National Center for Homeless Veterans (LINK UMass Homeless Center).

Education Activity

With family roots in Colombia, South America, Dr. Fletcher has also devoted much of his life to developing appropriate technologies for developing countries and since 2008, has been teaching the course “Information and Communication Technologies for Development” at MIT, which provides students the opportunity to design and deploy projects around the world.