Dr. Pestian's lab focuses on developing advanced technology for the care of neuropsychiatric illness. Using artificial intelligence, his team integrates analyses of trait and state characteristics for early identification of both neurological and psychiatric illness. His lab developed and implemented an automated, electronic health record surveillance system that processes clinician notes to identify epilepsy surgery candidates up to two years earlier than traditional approaches. The lab also focuses on earlier identification of individuals at risk of suicide, depression, and bipolar and anxiety disorders using verbal and non-verbal language.

Current projects include fusion of linguistic, acoustic, and visual cues that are being tested in selected Cincinnati Public Schools and Cincinnati Children’s clinics. Dr. Pestian and his lab have 18 issued patents and he is active in the entrepreneurial community. This activity has yielded over 500 jobs and one-half billion in revenue have been created. One invention, Processing Text With Domain-Specific Spreading Activation Methods, is a platform for neuropsychiatric research. Another, Optimization and Individualization of Medication Selection and Dosing, has been used for optimal mental health drug selection on more than 420,000 people. He and his colleagues have published more than 80 peer reviewed publications that focus on applied and translational sciences apropos to artificial intelligence.

He currently mentors five junior faculty, of which three have recently received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Pestian is an alumni of the NIH’s standing Study Section, Biomedical Library and Informatics Review Committee (BLIRC) of the National Library of Medicine, as well as the National Institute for Mental Health’s, Pathway to Independence (K99) study section.