Award

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Mental disorders affect million Americans and result in an annual loss of $ billion and total costs of at least $ billion While numerous psychosocial empirically supported therapies ESTs exist few clinicians are adequately trained to deliver them The overarching goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive software solution that effectively and efficiently facilitates the delivery of psychosocial ESTs for mental health problems To ensure significant reach and public health impact Practice Ground will be designed using industry standards for commercial success Specifically Practice Ground will be built as a third party module that seamlessly integrates into electronic health records EHRs and optimizes usersandapos workflow Practice Ground aids delivery of ESTs by integrating the following components dynamic progress monitoring clinical decision support rich visual displays of client outcomes online training modules in ESTs just in time training for guided real time assistance in delivering ESTs educational videos and a client portal In Phase I we developed and tested the usability acceptability and feasibility of an online progress tracker OPT prototype OPT was specifically selected because of its design and workflow complexities We also adapted an existing training course on progress monitoring PM to an online training format Proof of concept was determined in two phases extensive feedback from target end users clinicians clients and other stakeholders clinic directors program managers throughout software development formative evaluation and a within subjects pilot study N of the final prototype summative evaluation Consistent with initial hypotheses OPT significantly increased progress monitoring over time and significantly reduced barriers to use In addition we self funded continued work on OPT for a second year andquot Phase I Aandquot in order to complete a commercial ready HIPAA compliant product for launch in July We met and exceeded original aims In Phase II we intend to complete the development of PracticeGround using an agile development process to ensure usability and optimize workflow We will populate it with ESTs for depression insomnia bipolar disorder PTSD and suicide risk intervention and management loosely integrate PracticeGround into PracticeFusion and NetSmart using HL and develop a systems architecture design for tight integration of PracticeGround into EPIC PracticeFusion and NetSmart in Phase III We will conduct feasibility field tests at three sites that focus on usability and satisfaction frequencyof use across clients in their caseload and barriers to use We will then conduct an week randomized controlled trial N comparing PracticeGround n to care as usual n in depressed outpatient clients Primary outcomes include depression psychological distress treatment satisfaction clients and clinicians and treatment drop out Secondary clinician outcomes include extent of PracticeGround use with clients across cliniciansandapos caseload PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE Our ultimate goal is to facilitate the delivery of empirically supported treatments ESTs for mental disorders and to improve client mental health outcomes Toward this end this Phase II SBIR proposal seeks to complete the development and testing of PracticeGround a comprehensive software system designed to integrate with electronic health records and that contains multiple methods of training clinicians in ESTs and delivering ESTs to clients continuous progress monitoring of client outcomes and clinical support tools to guide clinicians and clients through delivery of the necessary EST