The UCSF/SFGH Internet World Health Research Center was created by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco to contribute one more powerful tool to the endeavors of our health sciences campus.

We engage in several types of research based on or supported by the Internet and/or mobile devices:

• Evidence-based Interventions delivered on the Internet or via a mobile device. Such interventions, based on psychological principles, can be delivered via the Web and subjected to rigorous scientific research to determine their effectiveness. One of our projects had demonstrated the efficacy of a Spanish/English smoking cessation website. Internet recruitment of participants for research studies.
• Internet can very effective in reaching individuals interested in participating in health research. Recruiting participants on the internet can reach participants anywhere in the world, in a variety of languages. One such study recruited participants from over 200 countries and territories, in four languages.
• Data collection for traditional studies. Collecting data via the Internet and/or a mobile device can be an efficient and cost-effective method to carry out traditional studies. In such studies, participants are recruited and interviewed in the usual face-to-face manner, but their data is entered either by our staff, or, if possible, by the participants themselves.