Reuben N. Robbins, PhD

Dr. Robbins is an Associate Professor of Clinical Medical Psychology (in Psychiatry) at Columbia University. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Fordham University and completed his APA-approved clinical psychology internship at the University of Florida. Dr. Robbins brings his expertise in child and adult clinical neuropsychology, as well as individual, couples and group psychotherapy.

Drawing on his clinical work, Dr. Robbins has research and clinical expertise in neurocognitive, mental health, and psychosocial aspects of HIV disease in adults and adolescents both domestically and in low-and-middle income countries. He is interested in developing and testing technologically-based interventions that promote greater access to medical care and positive health outcomes among disadvantaged and vulnerable populations in resource limited settings. Dr. Robbins is the creator of an easy-to-use, highly automated tablet application to assess neuropsychological functioning and screen for neurocognitive impairment (NeuroScreen) that is being evaluating for use to detect impairment in perinatally HIV-infected adolescents in South Africa (R01 HD095256, PI: Robbins), Thailand (R21 HD098035; PI: Robbins) and Uganda (R01 TW011228, PI: Robbins), as well as among older adults with suspected dementia in South Africa (3R01 HD095256-03S2).

Over the past 13 years, Dr. Robbins has contributed to and completed numerous research projects examining neurocognitive functioning, mental health, sex and drug risk behaviors, and adherence to HIV medical treatment in HIV-infected, -affected and at-risk adolescents and adults. Furthermore, he has been at the forefront of developing and testing technology-based clinical tools and interventions for resource-limited settings. As the creator of the NeuroScreen app, Dr. Robbins hopes to make neurocognitive testing more accurate and more widely available to populations that typically cannot access these services. Furthermore, the NeuroScreen app may also make the assessment of neurocognitive functioning more widely available to researchers in low- and middle-income countries, as well as other resource limited settings.