SCALE Health @ X University
SCALE Health @ X University

SCALE Health @ X University

SCALE is dedicated to advancing global health innovation and solving health inequality with AI.
Our lab utilizes Innovative, novel and experimental approaches in Scalable Clinical Artificial Intelligence (AI) Research to advance Health Leadership and Equity (SCALE).
The SCALE lab is focused on solving complex global health challenges across borders with thinkers and experts representing diverse fields such as computational computing, medicine, medical anthropology, visual methods, health education and novel AI.
 
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The lab is lead by Dr. Forrest Harding and team and our core mission is to advance global health equity and leadership in while measurably improving health statuses, functioning and outcomes in populations globally.
📍 New York City • Johannesburg • Providence
📧 E: lab@scalehealthlab.com
🔗 W: www.scalehealthlab.com

👤 PI: Dr. Forrest Harding

I am an anthropologist, pediatric specialist, global health advocate, multiform public practitioner and visual artist. I am currently at Brown University. I am also a researcher at Columbia University and University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. Previously, I have been a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar at Yale University and Amgen Scholar at Stanford University.
I have conducted multi-year fieldwork in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mexico, and the U.S. where I was trained as a social and medical anthropologist at University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa and I am the author of several upcoming papers, books and other outputs including “Where We Can’t Belong” and “You Can Be Happy Too.”

🧪 Current Projects

Working Papers
  • The Halsa Trial: Early Pilot Results from a Novel AI Model for Automating and Scaling Primary Care in Underserved and Chronic Care Populations
This second pilot study explores the further implementation of a novel AI model and protocol entitled Halsa designed to scale primary care delivery in underserved, resource scarce, chronic, vulnerable, last mile and high-need populations. Th early results offer further insights into feasibility, clinical scalability and population level datas. The study also examines feasibility of innovative and new approaches to revenue capture and reimbursement within government payor programs currently underutilized or not captured (e.g., CMS, etc), rigorously aiming to improve health status, functioning and overall outcomes.
  • Triage, Treat, Transform: A Novel Clinical Screener and Pre-Triage Early Intervention Model for Pediatric Neurodevelopmental Disorders (NDDs)
This research project reimagines specialist NDD and neurodevelopmental care access by targeting bottlenecks in the diagnostic process. Rather than waiting passively for diagnosis (in some cases delays of 12–24 months; in other cases complete lack of access to specialists, etc), this project proposes a proactive, inclusive and scalable approach to reach patients and families earlier.

📚 Publications & Creative Works

📚 Books & Monographs • Where We Can’t Belong — In Preparation (2025) → Multi-sited comparative global health ethnography on inequality and belonging across Southern Africa, Mexico, and the U.S. • You Can Be Happy Too: How to Stop Conflict, Feel Closer and Reclaim Happiness in Your Relationship — In Preparation (2025) → Evidence-informed relationship skills book blending psychology and creative nonfiction. • ADHD Unwrapped: Really Easy and Effective ADHD Skills for Adults, Parents, Teachers and Clinicians — In Preparation (2025) • The Field Guide to ADHD: What They Don’t Want You to Know — NOVA Bioscience (2017) • More than Lines (with R. Gumbire & D. Ambuel) — Published (2023) → Participatory Photovoice monograph on daily lived experiences in Beitbridge, South Africa.
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🧪 Peer Reviewed Articles, Working Papers & Research In Progress • Many Routes to Structural Dis/ease: How Health Inequality Drives Contested Health – International Journal of Health Equity (2025) • Halsa: A Novel Psychological Intervention – Completed (2025) • Halsa Now: Scaling Enhanced Health Through Mobile Implementation of the Halsa Curriculum – Completed (2025) • Comparative Dis/junctions: Place, Being and Becoming in Southern Africa and North America – In Preparation (2025) • Belonging and Suffering: Pandemic Polemics, Proxemics and Dis-ease in Southern Africa – In Progress (2025) • Humanitarianism as a Totalitarian Regime: Belonging and Suffering in Informal Mexican Migratory Settlements – In Preparation (2025) • Naively Becoming: My Unexpected Journey to Anthropologist – In Preparation (2025) • To Make Society Uneven: A History of Borders – In Preparation (2025) • Towards an Inclusive Society: What Does This Look Like? – In Preparation (2025) • The Political Economy of Survival at Two Contested Borders – In Preparation (2025)
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📰 White Papers & Policy Reporting • Sick, Poor and Unequal: Migratory Health Seeking Behaviors and Barriers at the US-Mexico Borderlands — Whitepaper, 2021 • Health Policy That Works: The Surprising Value of Human Capital Development in Health Equity Outcomes — NBER-IFS, 2018 • An Exploratory Study of the Relationship between ADHD and Youth Homelessness — UC Berkeley Honors Thesis, ERIC (2015)
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🎤 Selected Talks & Conference Presentations • “More than Lines: Visualizing Change, Crises and Complexity in Southern Africa” — AAA Annual Meeting, Baltimore, 2021 • “To Make Society Uneven: Tracing the Life Lines of Infrastructure” — University of Texas, Austin, 2020 • “Borders and Crossings: Life on the Brink” — American and Canadian Anthropological Society, Vancouver, 2019 • “Towards an Inclusive Society: What Does This Look Like?” — UMass Amherst Social Justice Panel, 2019 • “Borders: Affective Landscapes and Contested Survival” — University of Johannesburg, 2019 • “Borders: Life on the Brink” — Wits University, Anthropology Museum, 2017 • “Exploration of a Novel mHealth Protocol for At-Risk Youth with ADHD” — Columbia University, 2016 • “Investigation of a Novel mHealth BIT for Improving Attention in Young Children” — Stanford SOM, 2015 • “Behavioral Intervention Technologies in Mental Health” — Stanford SOM, 2015
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🎨 Creative Installations & Visual Anthropology • Re/Imagining BORDERS — Mixed Media Installation, AAA/CASCA, Vancouver, 2019 • Photovoice Series — Beitbridge, South Africa Borderlands (2017–2020) • Participatory Drawings, Paintings, and Mixed Methods Visual Ethnography — Zimbabwe, Mexico, U.S.

🧑‍🔬 Join the Lab

We’re recruiting highly motivated, creative and enthusiastic interns, researchers, doctors/clinicians, designers/artists, post-docs, collaborators and creatives with interests in:
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Global Mental Health
  • Neurology / Psychiatry
  • Visual Art / Visual Methods
  • Public Health / Global Affairs
  • Medical, Social and Visual Anthropologies

📬 Contact

Email: lab@scalehealthlab.com
www.scalehealthlab.com
© 2025 SCALE Health Lab. Built on Notion + spare lint + dreams + nuts/bolts. Inspired by radical empathy, innovation and achieving global health equity for all.
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