THREE KEYS – Technology Must Complement Mental Health & Addiction Recovery Services

We can agree on the following premise – advancing technologies improve health care. Whether the technologies were inventions of now ubiquitous equipment such as the thermometer or as sector-changing as the X-Ray and MRI machines, patients’ care immediately and exponentially improved after these and others were introduced. In these three cases, the equipment was created out of the need to precisely answer critical questions – Does the patient have an infection evidenced by a fever? Is her arm broken? Has the tumor size changed? Previously, educated guesses ruled the day and while great medical minds can deduce difficult answers to similar questions, it’s fair to say all would prefer to know the reading on the thermometer and see the scans before making a diagnosis or continuing with a treatment plan. 

Another technology was created in the early 20^th century by Dr. Henry Plummer, one of the first employees of what would become the Mayo Clinic, who developed the very first integrated patient medical record which replaced individual doctors’ records for individual patients. For the first time, one overall clinical record followed each patient and all information was available for diagnosis and treatment purposes.  Today, this seems simple, common, and obvious.

Behavioral health as a sector has been much slower than the physical health sector to develop and adopt new technologies to treat mental health and addiction issues. We are not so far removed from the use of Lobotomies and its ancestor, Trepanation, as methods to treat serious mental illnesses. Those really didn’t work out so well, and outside of significant improvements in medications, we haven’t done much since to address the needs of growing numbers of people living with mental health or substance use illnesses, nor the staggering economics – estimated to be at least $200 billion annually – associated with direct and indirect societal costs.

The Emerging Turning Point – There’s an App for That!

Smartphones are the new wristwatches. In fact, I gave up my wristwatch when I realized it was completely redundant when my iPhone became part of my wardrobe.  Look around and you’ll be surprised and somewhat horrified at how many people are regularly plugged in. Nearly everybody has a smartphone and thusly, has immediate access to apps to communicate, play games, stay informed and generally get into trouble. There are usage and data plans for everybody including those with lower incomes who may be eligible for subsidized service. Access is no longer as limited by income as it was years ago. So, let’s use this to our collective and societal advantage.

It’s time for the mental health sector to quickly catch up to the physical health sector by developing new equipment and technologies to save lives and help people feel better. For several years, patients with cardiac issues have had their pacemakers monitored remotely and people with diabetes can now immediately get readings about their glucose levels. The technology has also now caught up with the need to provide useful and actionable behavioral health-related data to case managers, counselors, social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists who are interested in working more closely with their clients and patients to improve outcomes. Telemedicine, Remote Patient Monitoring, and Store and Forward technologies are emerging as approved and billable methods for expanding care options. Like the thermometer, X-Ray and MRI machines, these technologies provide better and more timely information to inform diagnoses, interventions and treatment plans.  

Three Keys to Adopting Technology

• Demand better tools that leverage existing and emerging technology and encourage treatment innovation. Imagine an app that provides HIPAA-secure, real-time, remote monitoring of symptoms and changes in social determinants of health and alerts the treatment team, family and support system when intervention is needed.
• Lean on technology to continuously chase better outcomes for your clients, patients, and organization-at-large. Imagine an interoperable platform that seamlessly integrates with existing workflows and electronic health records and simultaneously provides client-level information to direct service staff, educational information to clients leading to improved treatment adherence and overall satisfaction, and organizational information to inform business decisions.
• Together with clients and patients, be bold, think differently and try something new that enables real-time information to inform treatment decisions and initiate interventions. Imagine clients and patients at the technological center of their treatment and bringing direct service staff closer to them than ever before through asynchronous communication methods.

The Solution – P2

P2 was developed to solve the communication problem that exists between visits with a counselor, care coordinator, physician or other treatment professional. People receiving services for mental health issues and/or addiction recovery need ongoing support from and connections with their treatment team as well as with their extended support system including friends, family, sponsors, etc. Maintaining active communication between visits prevents issues from becoming crises. Private health insurance systems, health care networks, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have seen the positive outcomes and ROI of remote patient monitoring.

P2 provides a pathway for community-based organizations to strengthen their existing services, improve overall outcomes, save lives, and improve their bottom lines by opening up new revenue streams.

Like other historic moments in health care, we are now experiencing another renaissance during which we have an opportunity to harness technology in new and usable ways that can immediately benefit those most in need.

Imagine the lives saved, families relieved, careers rescued, overdoses avoided, emergency room visits prevented, ……….

Until next time,
Rob

Rob Greenberger is President of KeyBridge Systems which was created to improve individual and organizational wellness. KeyBridge works directly with people to address issues related to their own mental health and wellness, develops systems and tools to improve the effectiveness of behavioral health interventions and treatment, and provides business consulting services to mission-driven organizations interested in stepping up their game.