Interests:

Digital behavioral and mental health interventions, multilingual and multicultural LLMs, and responsible AI for health.

Background:

Dr. Yuwen is an Associate Professor at the School of Nursing & Healthcare Leadership at UW Tacoma, with a research focus on developing technology-enabled solutions to promote health among individuals, families, and communities. Dr. Yuwen leads projects to develop, test, and disseminate technology-enabled health solutions in multiple languages to increase access to tailored symptom self- and family-management support for people with chronic health conditions and their families. Dr. Yuwen co-directs the Responsible Health AI Lab (RHAIL) with colleagues in computer science at UW Tacoma.

Current projects:

• Development and Testing of a Mechanism-Driven Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Skills Coaching Powered by Generative AI to Reduce HIV and Substance Use Risks

• AI-Enhanced and Culturally Adapted STAR-C for Latino Caregivers

Representative publications:

Yuwen W, Wang L, Xie SJ, Divina M, Fan X, Kearns W, Ward TM. Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a Conversational Agent Delivering Problem-Solving Therapy for Family Caregivers of Children With a Chronic Health Condition: Multiphase Mixed Methods Study. J Med Internet Res. 2026 Oct 6;28:e94175. doi: 10.2196/94175. PMID: 42837532; PMCID: PMC13641311.

Xie SJ, Zhai S, Liang Y, Li J, Fan X, Cohen T, Yuwen W. Cultural Prompting Improves the Empathy and Cultural Responsiveness of GPT-Generated Therapy Responses. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2024;2024:1384-1393. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC12919561.

Filienko D, Wang Y, Jazmi CE, Xie S, Cohen T, De Cock M, Yuwen W. Toward Large Language Models as a Therapeutic Tool: Comparing Prompting Techniques to Improve GPT-Delivered Problem-Solving Therapy. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2024;2024:417-426. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC12099324.

Wang L, Carrington D, Filienko D, El Jazmi C, Xie SJ, De Cock M, Iribarren S, Yuwen W. Large Language Model-Powered Conversational Agent Delivering Problem-Solving Therapy (PST) for Family Caregivers: Enhancing Empathy and Therapeutic Alliance Using In-Context Learning. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2024;2024:1315-1324. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC12919573.

Kearns WR, Bertram J, Divina M, Kemp L, Wang Y, Marin A, Cohen T, Yuwen W. Bridging the Skills Gap: Evaluating an AI-Assisted Provider Platform to Support Care Providers with Empathetic Delivery of Protocolized Therapy. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2023;2023:436-445. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10785887.